After a true story about the big love between a female writer and a painter on the colourful and isolated Volga island Sviyazhsk not far from the Tatar capital Kazan. Svetka has two almost grown-up sons, but she has never known love. Her husband who used to beat her up has died from drinking too much. She is looking for new happiness and she meets Genka. A provincial painter with an odd style. Love seems to be eternal, however it is put to a test one more time. Gennady Arkhireyev, the real life painter whose life story is being told here, died only few months before the end of the film shooting. His paintings only achieved public acclaim at international museums shortly before that. The short stories by Svetlana Kolina, the real life writer, have provided large parts of the script.