Film se dá také interpretovat jako záznam konfrontace dvou kultur a civilizací, setkává se zde Západ s Východem, kapitalismus s komunismem, mentalita utvářená demokracií s mentalitou, kterou formovala diktatura.
Před měsícemA woman who cleans toilets has dreams of meeting a lover and finding happiness.Will these dreams, in the winter of a USSR in its last years, come true?
In Leningrad, he learns that his wife and children have disowned him. Overwhelmed by this revelation, he breaks his sobriety, but Zhanna carefully brings him home and nurses him back to health.