Plucked from an orphanage as a literal love slave, the now adult Natalija (a luminous Kseniya Kutepova) serves her ape-like husband by tending his prized cow—whose milk they sell to customers on passing trains. When hubby suddenly drops dead, however, Natalija’s narrow life of cows and rails finally starts opening up. Dumping his body at the local hospital, dropping by church to say a few prayers and trading in the cow for a pet goat, she slowly eliminates all trace of his former hold on her, searching out a new life in the freedom that emerges.
Natalia

Sergei

Natalia's husband

Olga
nurse

policeman

security officer

Gleb

cook
Grigori
train conductor

bride
groom
sexton

merry-go-round operator

cantor

Father Pyotr
