Set between 1966 and 1968, the film follows the twilight years of a secret Soviet scientific institute where boundary-pushing experiments in science and mysticism unravel into chaos. After the incapacitation of Lev Landau, the institute's previously renowned chief scientist, the stern and authoritarian KGB general, Vladimir Azhippo, takes control as director. Under his rule, he clamps down on the institute's permissive culture, halting the debauched behavior that marked the old regime and curbing the abuses that had gone unchecked. Yet the institute remains a place of strange and unsettling activity, where experiments on animals, humans, and even infants pursue the limits of knowledge and creation, often at the edge of what is scientifically acceptable and ethically defensible. The corridors hum with quiet tension as the line between rigorous inquiry and dangerous experimentation blurs.
Amid the decaying walls, younger staff members push back by embracing Western influences such as rock and roll, new ideas, and a different spirit, their dissent signaling a shift in the institute's social fabric. But the crackdown comes quickly, and conformity is enforced with harsh penalties, surveillance, and coercive discipline. The internal power dynamics intensify as the institute's leadership tries to reconcile competing ambitions with the new order, while the scientists themselves are forced to navigate competing loyalties—allegiance to the work, to each other, and to a political system that demands unwavering obedience.
Azhippo's measures culminate in the arrival of a violent ultra-left-wing faction, backed by the KGB to restore discipline and erase perceived degeneracy. What begins as intimidation escalates into a full-scale purge, as neo-communist thugs move through the institute with swift, brutal force, unleashing racist, antisemitic, and homophobic ideologies to justify their actions. The violence leaves scars on the staff and the institution alike, shredding procedural norms and transforming once-promising research into a ruined legacy.
Within this maelstrom, internal subplots reveal the human cost of power struggles and ideological extremism. The internal departments—Head of the Experimental Department, Alexey Blinov and Head of the Theoretical Department, Dmitry Kaledin—are shown contending with pressure from above, clashing over methods, ethics, and the future direction of the institute. On the fringes, other figures such as the Head of the Experimental Group, Maxim Martsinkevich contend with the consequences of the purge and the slow unraveling of a research community that once thrived on fearless exploration. The result is a stark meditation on ambition, control, and the high cost of political intrusion into the world of scientific inquiry.
