Maria Svizhinska

Five-year-old Vitka and her teenage cousin Larysa both yearn for a life beyond the archaic rules and restricting confines of their small, godforsaken Ukrainian village. Despite her family's staunch objections, Larysa falls wildly in love with Scar, a handsome ex-convict. Hoping to leave their troubled past behind, the two plot their escape. Scar agrees to take on a criminal job in the city. Larysa, meanwhile, fends off an arranged marriage and awaits his return.

A lonely dad, facing the sudden death of a Ukrainian babysitter, takes his daughter and her friend on a journey by the truck. Will trucker and two scamp girls handle the transport of frozen fish, body smuggling and life without a home?

While parents, people of traditional rural values, are cooking blood sausage for the visit of daughter-in-law, Andriy, their son, tries to communicate the fact his fiancee is Jewish.