Vladimir Bernshstein is a prisoner in a 1950s Soviet prison camp and has just begun a long sentence for smuggling. Vladimir and his only friend, Aleksei, work all day cutting down trees and constructing new buildings for the camp. Vladimir's wife, Elena, is also behind bars in a woman's camp and his only chance to find her lies with the Vory v Zakonye (Thieves-in-Law), an elite Russian criminal organization going back to the time of the czars.