A group of people is engaged in historical reenactment. They aestheticize the world around them by immersing themselves in the Early Middle Ages. Among them is Sergei, who studies and creates chainmail armor. His existence is split between the routine of combat training and his workshop. The Middle Ages are an ideal world for him, and he captures his immersion in it by posing in historical costume before a camera.
Sergei travels to a festival where tourist cameras, visitor contests, and plastic cups invade his intimate world of reenactment. During a staged battle, his comrade suffers a terrible injury—reality breaks through the illusion.
Night falls. The reenactors go on a binge with their clubmates; there's heavy drinking in the camp, pop songs are sung, and people dance frantically around the bonfire.
The illusion shatters, laying bare the ordinary. And Sergei, returning home, dissolves into the gray city of concrete panel buildings.