The film shows Boris's and Masha's modest life, without modern technology, relying on each other's hard work to survive.

Rak is the chairman of Birobidzhan's last collective farm, which excessive rain has reduced to a swampland.

Nature has reduced the once prosperous communal farm into a swampy, puddled mush.

Physical handicaps and old age cripple the people that the film follows, and it is clear that their expectations of the Jewish Republic have been met by disappointment.

Despite being subjected to the negative effects of rain, aging, politics, and other's people's decisions, Rak and Masha continue to persevere.