Roby is a young Jewish man in the Soviet Union at the end of the 1960s who experiences the full terrors of the Soviet regime but doesn’t surrender for a moment. After being arrested in his hotel room and sent to prison without trial, he starts a hunger strike. Despite being thrown into solitary confinement repeatedly, he bravely withstands brutal interrogation and cruel torture. Ultimately he “triumphs” and gets his day in court.
But the verdict is a harsh one, as he is sentenced to serve his time in one of the worst prisons in the Tajik steppes, a place where everyday survival is nothing short of a miracle.
Behind bars, Roby thinks of his father, who died in prison for a petty crime. He holds on to his dream of marrying the woman he loves and immigrating to Israel. Even as he fights cold and disease, corrupt guards and pitiless inmates, Roby does not lose his faith or his humanity. He fights unceasingly to preserve his and his friends’ honor, struggling against the evil that lurks behind every corner of the Soviet regime.
