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Elizaveta, an attractive 27-year-old Muscovite, begins noticing strange things– she is followed; she receives anonymous calls, flowers, and gifts. She soon learns that the culprit is her former lover, Timofey. Timofey now lives on the Volga and has a thriving business, but a serious threat emerges when the daughter of a local mafia man who is Timofey’s long-time patron and protector wants to marry him. Timofey knows his life is in danger if he says no. To save himself, he plans to create a fictitious marriage certificate and inform his “godfather” that he has been married for several years. Creating the ruse is simple – one can do whatever one desires, for a price. The only concern is the fake wife and the reliability of her silence.
Timofey remembers Elizaveta, an honest, old-fashioned woman unlucky in love. Timofey decides to woo her through an array of absurd episodes designed to upset her equilibrium and prime her for romance. Elizaveta herself is open to change, desiring to live her life more fully.
Elizaveta and Timofey reconnect. After trying to appeal to Elizaveta’s heart, Timofey admits that he is in trouble and needs help. Romance and pragmatism get whimsically mixed up, passion reignites, and Elizaveta, though confused by Timofey’s motives, agrees to marry him.
A problem arises, however: they need witnesses to make the marriage official – the kind who will keep quiet. Fortuitously, Timofey and Elizaveta run into Muscovite Nikolai and American Frank, who arrived on the same train as Elizaveta. Nikolai and Frank have their own bold plans. Businessman Nikolai must buy a rare historical document from the local museum to retain an important client, while Frank obsessively searches for an old treasure trove using a map from a Russian immigrant. They accept Timofey’s offer to serve as witnesses, but then another setback disrupts the plan.
The godfather does not want his daughter to marry Timofey. He decides to frighten Timofey, take his money, and force him out of town. The godfather hires bandits to kidnap the unlucky groom, ostensibly for a ransom.
The operation does not go smoothly and all four protagonists land in captivity. The cruel, ruthless kidnappers hide them in a deserted guest house, threatening them with guns and physical force. The romance of the absurd turns into a harsh and dangerous reality.
The protagonists, fearing death, devise a desperate plan to rebel. Fate, however, intervenes. The godfather dies in a car accident, which the gangsters only learn about after the kidnapping. The police become involved and the hostages are released. The ending is not entirely happy, however. Having grown closer to Elizaveta during their harrowing ordeal, once the danger turns farcical, Timofey fears that he has lost his dignity. And when he learns that his godfather is dead and his fictitious marriage is no longer necessary, he loses interest in Elizaveta.
The lovers part. A heartbroken Elizaveta wonders if her soul is too simple ever to find her true destiny. Elizaveta, Nikolai, and Frank head to a restaurant to celebrate their release. There, a series of tragic-comical episodes allow them to reach an emotional resolution and the coincidences that brought them together no longer seem random. Each of the protagonists sought, but did not find, what they wanted. “When all illusions end, there’s no reason to live,” somebody jokes, but Elizaveta, with her trusting and “simple” soul, is crestfallen by the comment.
Elizaveta impulsively rushes to the station and buys a ticket on the next train. Her sudden departure creates a void as the protagonists disperse to their hotel rooms – enduring the death of recent hopes and searching for the strength to discover new ones. But some elusive thing survives. Nikolai’s friend suddenly realizes how he should change the plot and title of his next novel. In fact, this calls for the creation of a whole new word: SEMMANT.
Meanwhile, Elizaveta journeys back to Moscow, but not alone. The vanished “groom” re-appears. Timofey has realized that breaking up with Elizaveta was the worst loss of all. He waits for her at the station, boards the train, and convinces her to start all over yet again. She hasn’t forgotten his betrayal but illusion, ultimately, proves stronger than reality. And coincidences are often not so random after all.
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