Petrograd, winter 1919. The wind of destruction blows through the city. In his freezing apartment, the professor, a specialist in the Orient, sees a living incarnation of Buddha appear... The statue of Buddha found by the professor many years ago in the Gobi Desert turns his life upside down: by decision of the revolutionary government, he is included in the group that must return the statue to a Mongolian monastery in exchange for livestock for starving Petrograd. The unusual pilgrims have gathered around the bronze statue in a frozen railway carriage. Each one pursues his own goal...
