It is a story that resonates for a generation of Ukrainian women - working in a foreign land to build a better future for their family back home. However, where there may be financial rewards, the personal costs may be high. Ukrainian woman, Darynka is returning home after several years working in Italy. She left for Italy to find work to support her family in Bukovina in the central Eastern Carpathians of Ukraine. That work involves taking care of a wealthy Italian lawyer and his elderly mother. It is a lonely existence, she is totally dependent on her employers, the elderly woman treats her with disdain and the work is round the clock. The money offers her family an opportunity to escape the otherwise grinding poverty that would have marked their lives. It funds a new house, destined to be accommodation for visitors to this part of the Carpathian Mountains, her husband is building it, however he is doing it casually and slowly. However, while she was earning money abroad her family.
1947. Commander of UPA Danylo Chervonyi gets into the terrible slaughter of Stalin's prison-camp Gulag, where he must go through hell and inhumane prison conditions, prosecution of criminal leaders, meanness, betrayal and despair. Danylo finds the strength to resist repression of the prison-camp commander and makes a desperate attempt to break free, raising the first rebel in the camp.
Rokas and Inga, a couple of young Lithuanians, volunteer to drive a cargo van of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. When plans change and they find themselves left to their own devices, they cross the vast snowy lands of the Donbass region in search of shelter, drifting into the lives of those affected by the war. They approach the frontline despite the danger, all the while growing closer to each other as they begin to understand life during wartime.
A young Jewish boy somewhere in Eastern Europe seeks refuge during World War II where he encounters many different characters.