The Russian-Japanese War. Manchuria. Russian military hospital on the retreat stations in a half-destroyed Chinese village. The head of the hospital Sergey Karenin learns that the wounded officer Count Vronsky is the person who ruined his mother Anna Karenina. Harboring no illusions and expecting no answers, Karenin comes to Vronsky and asks him the question which has been tormenting him all his life: what made his mother cross the line? After some hesitation Vronsky agrees to tell the story of his tragic love for Anna Karenina, observing that people remember only what they choose to remember. Immersed in the past, Vronsky begins to reassess the story of thirty years ago and finally comes to realize that for many years he has been in the grip of the bygone events.