Set primarily on Moscow’s iconic Old Arbat Street, a hub for street vendors, struggling young artists, and musicians, this film follows the life of a young boy named Mitiya. He resides with an eccentric older companion in an apartment building on the bustling street. The individuals who surround Mitiya are all distinctively quirky, and the apartment building itself takes on a surreal quality, serving as a microcosm of the unstable society during the final days of the Soviet Union.