故事发生在1989年,神情忧郁的16岁女孩莱拉(埃莉诺·汤姆林森 Eleanor Tomlinson 饰)因伤害同学而被学校出名,刚好她利用这个时间随同研究艺术史的希尔博士(斯蒂芬·瑞 Stephen Rea 饰)来到处于铁幕统治的匈牙利,对一座19世纪城堡中的画作进行研究。在一个清冷的早晨,原打算在树林里割腕自杀的莱拉意外目睹一场蓄意杀人的车祸,幸存者是名叫卡米拉(朱莉娅·皮楚查 Julia Pietrucha 饰)的女孩。卡米拉拒绝报警,随同莱拉来到城堡躲藏。在仿佛与世隔绝的所在,两个女孩手牵着手,成为了好朋友。
谁知卡米拉很快消失无踪,而沉睡在城堡中的神秘力量似乎也由此苏醒,所有的人陷入疯狂之中……
This is an interesting yet bizarre little tale of a fictional (as far as I know, anyway) experiment performed during the Stalin-controlled years in the USSR. The main character is changed from a woman into a man. This is part of a larger plan to change more women into men and have a stronger work-force/army, etc. It's a very in-depth character study of the main character, who tries to fit into a world that she (now 'he') doesn't really understand, especially since she's now a man ... Stalin dislikes the results of the experiments and has the scientist killed. The main character then goes off to live a life as a simple, unknown everyday Soviet, but is inexplicably drawn into larger and larger schemes (somewhat reminiscent of "Forrest Gump" in that way). (s)He has run-ins with different important characters, including his ex-boyfriend from his days of being a woman, as well as going on a demented quest for the nurse with whom he possibly fell in love after the operation... However, he is trapped in his life as an important Soviet married man, and in the end makes a huge sacrifice for his country (unwillingly), and the movie goes from there to an ending that is possibly happy, yet still somehow incredibly depressing.