The film is set in Moscow during the mid 1920s. Some live the high life, while others barely survive. A young girl, Lyuba, lives with her elderly aunt Barbara. Barbara takes advantage of and abuses the girl, and later, "sells" her to a neighbor. kicking her out of the house. But Lyuba does not stay in the street for long: she is sheltered by a random friend, who turns out to be a brothel madam. She also pimps out the girl. Next to Aunt Barbara lives the Tyrkin family. Pyotr Tyrkin works for the businessman-butcher Kondratiev. Pyotr's everyday life is well-adjusted. His wife Vera keeps house and raises two young children. Work brings in a regular income.However, Pyotr ends up getting killed while drunk. Left without a livelihood, Vera is forced by the situation to get together with the butcher and sell her body. On the street, she meets seasoned prostitute Manka, who tells about her fate. When Manka worked as a maid, she was seduced by the son of the mistress. After getting kicked out of the house by the mistress for having relations with her son, she became homeless. On the street, she came to work at a whorehouse and got a venereal disease, which she is still recovering from. Vera is not able to earn money from prostitution. Both of her children fall seriously ill one after another. In desperation, she tries to commit suicide by throwing herself into an ice-hole. But she does not succeed with the attempt and gets rescued. 

DVD-r has Russian and English intertitles and no subtitles. Approx. 77 mins. See film sample for audio and video quality!