The illiterate kaffir Mpele receives a message from the prison farm about his... death, as well as the “property of the deceased”: a pipe, a pen and a notebook... The perplexed Mpele, who has never even been under arrest, turns to the police...

A female commissar is sent to the naval detachment, led by the anarchist Vozhak, on behalf of the Party Central Committee. She is tasked with subordinating the sailors to the cause of the revolution.

Paris, 1930s. There is ferment among the Russian emigration: part of it is accumulating strength to overthrow the Bolsheviks, others are illegally, but actively working for the Soviet government.