Twelve-year-old Tanya's father dies in a terrorist attack in the Rostov region. Through experiencing this grief and recounting her own life, the maturing heroine understands the history of her country. Studying Russian émigré literature and delving into her own past in sessions with a psychologist, she examines her relationship with her father through the lens of culture, drawing on the stories of others—the experience of Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva, and the perceptions of the fathers of Marina Tsvetaeva, Boris Ryzhy, Jean-Paul Sartre, Peter Esterhazy, and other renowned literary figures.