[1] It tells stories of the indigenous nomadic people of the Russian tundra under modern Communist rule, combining Nenets legends with personal experiences.

In a montage, she mends their clothing, cleans a hide, washes their dishes, and works so hard she begins to cry.

The young men begin to treat her poorly as their servant; she berates them one morning as she prepares their boots for them, saying, "You swore eternal love to me when my brothers were alive."

God Two Nenets men, one a war veteran, stop to have a drink and small meal in front of a statue of Lenin in town.

The veteran man recounts his war days, explaining that before the Battle of Vesyoli Village, he poured some vodka on the ground and prayed to Lenin that the bullets wouldn't hit him.

He moves to pour the remainder of his vodka at the base of the statue, but is stopped by a white man in a suit.

Enemies of the People A group of Russian women - some old, some young, some related, some not - sit together in a log cabin.

Nearby, a Nenets boy watches the Russians, but his mother comes out of the family chum (tent) and chides him, telling him not to look at those exiled from their homeland.

Back in the log cabin, a woman with a baby in her arms asks her Aunt Olya to read the cards for her, to interpret her dream.

Olesya suddenly runs outside to the lake, and stares longingly at a Nenets couple in a rowboat, laughing and splashing each other.

The Russian group gathers on the waterfront, and warm their feet in an old firepit while telling stories of their lives before the Soviet era.

The next morning, two of the women, Mashka and Olesya, deliver the missing report on the fish to the Commissar, who is staying with the nearby Nenets family.

A scene shows the end of recess at a local boarding school, with Nenets children dressed in western clothing, laughing and playing.

Later, after a snowstorm, Syako (who remains unenrolled) goes to see her friend Maima; she is proudly wearing a Russian shawl and several scarves symbolizing being a pioneer and a Communist.

Syako's mother says she keeps them away so they don't gather dust, but the Nenets man reprimands her, saying they must be visible at all times, or they will be reported.

Syako's father tries to tell the two men that his daughter still isn't talking very well, and that other children tease her - that developmentally, she is not ready still for school.