Tamara Volina lives in Moscow together with her husband Vladimir and daughter Nastya. Tamara comes from a village, and her husband is a scientist from a professorial family. However education didn't help Vladimir become a worthy person. He drinks and beats Tamara. Nastya completely stopped studying and eventually ended up on the verge of expulsion from her elite school. Tamara hides the truth from everyone, even from her mother-in-law. The only person to whom Tamara involuntarily told about the nightmare in which she lives, is Nastya's school director Yevgeny Ilyin, a former military man. He began to take care of Tamara from the first meeting, but she had no reciprocal feelings for him. After another beating, Tamara takes her daughter, leaves the house and gives a divorce. But the new life does not develop. The heroine has no apartment, no work, no money. In a desperate situation, Tamara agrees to marry Ilyin ...