Lauded Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein spent an extended period of time in Mexico working on an ambitious project that was never realized until much later, when this film was assembled from the largely abandoned footage. Moving from ancient Mayan times to the 1930s, the episodic movie features various dramatic segments, including scenes of a marriage ceremony and of bullfighting, as well as a Day of the Dead celebration and depictions of the Mexican Revolution.

A group of old friends have a tradition of going to a public bathing house on New Year's Eve. Occasionally too much vodka and beer makes two of them unconscious. The problem is that one of them (Sasha) has to go to Leningrad but another one (Zhenya) goes. Zhenya wakes up at Leningrad airport. Believing that he is still in Moscow he takes a taxi and goes home. The street name, building and even apartment number, the way an apartment complex looks the same and the key coincide completely - just typical Soviet-type 'economy' architecture. Imagine the surprise of Nadya when she enters her apartment and finds a man without trousers in her bed. What's more - Nadya's fiancé also finds him there...

In the waters of the Pacific Ocean, regular maneuvers of the Soviet and American squadrons are taking place. After months of autonomous navigation, our military frigate heads to its home base. The distress signal received forces sailors to change course. The CIA arranges a provocation: on a secret American base, one of the missile launchers was prepared for a real strike on the enemy’s squadron. Instead of saving people, Soviet sailors will have to intervene in the deadly game started by NATO. At the cost of tremendous effort, the crew of one of the Soviet ships managed to prevent the catastrophe provoked by CIA agents. They enter a real battle...

Going on a business trip, the hero of the film suddenly finds himself in a fantastic city. It is very similar to our world, only the hidden absurdity of everyday life here has become apparent.

The invasion of a village in Byelorussia by German forces sends young Florya into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha, who accompanies him back to his village. On returning home, Florya finds his family and fellow peasants massacred. His continued survival amidst the brutal debris of war becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope.