Artyom Kazakov (Leonid Gromov), a professor of Scientific Atheism at the Leningrad State University, is visiting his brother, the district military commissioner, Colonel Mikhail, in a small town of Nizhny Volok in fictitious Leninsk Oblast.

Artyom and Alexey consume large quantities of moonshine alcohol while arguing about faith in God and retribution from sins, the professor defending the Soviet atheist worldview.

At the concert Valery hangs out with Angelika (Agniya Kuznetsova), another female student friend of his who is a daughter of a high-ranking Communist Party official.

The stranger enters the barn, declares that he is a police officer Captain Zhurov (Aleksei Poluyan), and takes away the gun.

Zhurov handcuffs Angelika to the bed frame in his bedroom, and start to bring jail inmates in to rape her as he himself watches.

Captain Zhurov visits Alexey in his cell and convinces him to take the blame for the crime in return for some unexplained earlier favors.

In the last scenes Valery, who managed to keep a low profile through the entire affair, is shown discussing business propositions with Artyom's son, Slava.

[5] Wally Hammond from Time Out gave the film a mostly positive review, stating, "Whether this superbly-acted, finely-directed, vision of hell is intended as a despairing state-of-the-nation address or a shocking spiritual wake-up call is unclear; what is certain, it certainly provides this year's grizzliest cinematic ghost-ride".

[7] According to David Auerbach, the film is not a true story as claimed, but is based on William Faulkner's novel Sanctuary, which was set in Mississippi in 1929.