A young couple decide to return to the Soviet Union with their small child in 1946, when Stalin invited those who fled the country to return after the war. Their return is not what they had expected. A future that looks nothing but grim, they are interrogated, put in shared apartments with suspicious neighbors and no privacy. Marie begins to rebel against the circumstances as her husband's medical education is needed by the authorities. As they begin to get ahead, Marie meets up with a touring French actress and soon faces a terrifying choice: to leave her husband and children for freedom or stay and confront a grim future.