A story of post-communist Russia set in arid wastelands. Philipp Safronov is a peaceful farmer who works on his farm and spends part of his time chatting and drinking with friends and hunting in the extremely cold weather. His monotonous life is violently set by a mysterious group who arrive on his land with the intention of taking it over to carry out oil research. With his neighbours, who are in the same situation, Philipp organises a punitive expedition using the same methods and spirit of his elders who lived through the war and who all enjoy hunting. One by one in a paradoxical way they face the speculators leaving a funeral horizon behind them towards an explosive challenge. The protagonists and the steppe become complementary parts in the same natural and human landscape.