The action takes place in Leningrad n the time of "perestroika" during the 1980's. Tatyana is a beautiful Russian nurse who is underpaid at her hospital job, so she becomes a prostitute catering to international tourists. She becomes well paid in dollars, and helps her ailing mother survive. Tatyana's international clients tell her about the life in other countries, so she accepts a marriage in order to escape from the grim Soviet reality. Even though she is married to a decent man abroad, she still suffers being labeled an ex-Soviet prostitute, and her new life is full of new troubles.