A Simple Soul Synopsis

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Elizaveta, an attractive 27-year-old Muscovite, begins to notice strange things happening to her - she is being followed, receiving anonymous calls, flowers and presents from people she does not know. Soon she finds out that this is the work of her old friend Timofey, with whom she once had a passionate romance. He has left Moscow, lives in town on the Volga and has a thriving business, but a threat to his well-being suddenly appears on the horizon - the daughter of a local mafia man, his long-standing patron and protector, wants to marry him. Timofey is horrified by the prospect, yet he understands that he has no choice - an influential family would be infuriated by a refusal and would wipe him out. In a feverish attempt to save himself, he decides to admit to his "godfather" that he has already been married for some time - having a fictitious marriage certificate drawn up and dated a few years back. The formalities are no problem - you can do whatever you want for money - the only concern is the fake wife and the reliability of her silence.

After some agonizing reflection, Timofey recalls Elizaveta - she was different from the majority of women, being honest in the old fashioned way and able to keep her word. This might be why she does not have much luck in relationships with members of the opposite sex. Timofey, used to choosing the hard road, creates an array of absurd episodes, each of which - one way or the other - should upset her equilibrium and tune her to a romantic pitch. His efforts are not in vain - all the more because inside she herself is ready for change, expecting something that will let her live more fully.

Elizaveta goes to see Timofey and realizes that she is no less attracted to him than before. They have long talks, and though he tries to be devious at the beginning and charm her by appealing to her heart, he then admits that he has ended up in a complicated situation and needs help. That said, Timofey is surprised to notice that he is ready to fall for her again. Romance and pragmatism get whimsically mixed up, the embers of emotion burst into flame, and ultimately Elizaveta does not have the strength to figure out what to do in the cobweb of motives and agrees to help and marry him.

One other problem arises however: they need witnesses to make the marriage official - the kind that will not unleash rumors afterwards. Timofey is lucky on this front: they accidentally run into Nikolai from Moscow and an American citizen, Frank, who have both arrived on the same train as Elizaveta. They have their own bold plans, lucky moments and minor tragedies. The businessman Nikolai is forced to buy a rare historical document from the local museum to retain an important client, while Frank is obsessed with searching for an old treasure trove that he intends to find with a map he bought from a Russian immigrant. Events have not developed as they imagined; both of them need a break to look around and catch their breath. They accept Timofey's invitation, but yet another force interferes with the plan now, one whose existence nobody suspected.

The "godfather" has his own view of his daughter's marrying, preparing an entirely different future for her. Moreover, for a while now he has been unable to stand the sight of Timofey and his excessively brazen success. He decides to act harshly - frighten Timofey, take away all the money he has made and force him to leave the town once and for all. To obtain this end, he hires a bunch of bandits from out of town, assigning them the task of kidnapping the unlucky groom ostensibly for the purpose of receiving a ransom.

The operation does not go smoothly: a chain of uncoordinated events results in all four protagonists landing in captivity. The kidnappers hide them in a deserted guest house, threatening and using physical force. Everything happens very fast, as in a grotesque play, but it is not grotesque, for they are not joking around. The gangsters have real guns, they are ruthless and cruel. The romance of the absurd turns into harsh reality, which none of the prisoners has ever had anything to do with.

The protagonists are certain that they will not be left alive and work out a desperate plan to rebel, though the right moment never comes. They wait, emboldening each other as much as strength allows while subjecting plenty to reappraisal. Serious motives and reasons led them to this town; they believed that they were taking the right step and had everything under control. Now they can only be astonished at how easily Fate had managed to laugh at them all.

However Fate still has some surprises in reserve. The bandits' plan gets disorganised and the lack of coordination is easy to explain: that very day the "godfather" dies in an automobile accident, which the gangsters only find out about after they have kidnapped the foursome. They become locked in a stalemate; the police get involved; and after lengthy nerve-wracking attempts, the hostages are released from confinement. A happy ending appears in sight, but everything turns out differently - the near purity of Timofey and Elizaveta's union in the hours of real danger becomes the acme of their affinity. Once the danger turns into a farce, Timofey suspects that he has lost his dignity and can think of nothing else. And when he finds out that his "godfather" is dead and his fictitious marriage is no longer necessary, Elizaveta instantly stops interesting him.

They clarify the matter and part for good. The recent outburst of feeling seemed contrived - in Timofey's world there is no place for it. For Elizaveta it is a hard blow, the meaning she found in life appears to have been phoney, she loses part of her illusions for ever. "Does my life have no destiny - is my soul too simple?" she asks herself bitterly, trying as never before to retain her composure.

She succeeds - especially in the company of Nikolai and Frank when they all head to a restaurant to celebrate their rescue from the bandits. There, a series of tragicomical episodes allow them finally to reach an emotional resolution. The secrets of destiny linger in the air, the coincidences bringing them all together no longer seem so random. Each of the protagonists sought something and did not find what they wanted. All of them are na?ve in some manner - Nikolai, who has lost himself in signals from "higher powers", the pragmatist Frank, obsessed with the glitter of the "American Dream", Nikolai's friend, an author of strange books, who is staring at Elizaveta constantly… "When all illusions end, there's no reason to live," somebody explains jokingly, but Elizaveta, normally willing to laugh at herself, does not accept the joke this time. She has it harder than the rest, she lives everything for real - a trusting nature, a simple soul.

Finally, she can hold out no longer: she rushes to the train station, buys a ticket on the next train - something is chasing her away from here, and there is no way to resist the impulse. Her sudden departure creates a void, the protagonists disperse to their hotel rooms - enduring the derailment of recent hopes and searching for the strength to discover new ones. But something from this night, some elusive streak cannot disappear without a trace. Left alone, Nikolai's friend suddenly realizes how he should change the plot of his next novel. Not even the name can remain the same - this is a new illusion, coming to replace the old, and it needs to be titled differently. It even calls for the creation of a word that does not exist - it's time to stop worrying they won't understand you… He crosses out the title at the beginning of the manuscript, then crumples up the sheet and takes out a new one, writing across the very top: "SEMMANT."

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© Vadim Babenko.
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