Without considering the possible consequences, easy-going Merab borrows his brother's passport and pretends to be him to cross the security checkpoint to the departure area.
Merab buys champagne at the duty-free, but then realizes that there's no way to exit the departure area and return to the public terminal.
He is given contradictory information by airport employees about where to go and with whom to speak, and he becomes increasingly frantic as he attempts to exit the departure area before Yasha misses his flight.
Onboard the flight, Merab befriends the charming Borya, who is dressed as a stereotypical Russian peasant and sports a balalaika.
The plane lands in Vienna (a common practice at the time, due to the lack of direct flights from Moscow to Tel Aviv).
After hearing his improbable story, Izya concludes that Merab is a KGB spy and throws him out of the house at gunpoint.
After spending the night in an abandoned boat on the beach, Merab visits a local market and encounters a casual acquaintance from Tbilisi, a former policeman.
There, he learns that the Soviet mission in Tel Aviv, which he thought to have left, is actually operating out of the office of the Finnish ambassador.
Having no keys to the handcuffs, Merab unhinges the car door and is forced to carry it around for some time until he finds a way to free himself.
Merab is approached by an American journalism student named Jane, who has seen portions of his misadventures over the past two days.
In return, she introduces him to Senya (Semyon), a World War II veteran who works in an industrial freezing facility and is involved in shady business on the side.
Senya proposes a plan to secretly sneak Merab back into the USSR through Jordan, Syria, and Turkey.
He has no legal way to enter the country: even if Yasha's passport were not both lost and expired, it doesn't allow re-entry into the USSR.
Left with no other choice, Merab wades across the waist-deep water separating Turkey from his native Georgia, with arms outstretched, begging unseen border guards not to shoot.