Life isn't easy in modern-day Kiev if you're no good at hunting down the mighty dollar. And Anatoli isn't. An intellectual who has become surplus to requirements in the new capitalist jungle, he is forced to embark on a string of menial odd jobs just to survive. Hardly surprising, then, that his cheating wife eventually goes off with another man. Disheartened, Anatoli decides to commit suicide and the possibility arises of having someone else organise his suicide: there is no shortage of contract killers in Kiev. But at this, too, Anatoli is a failure. Can an honest intellectual ever really be cured?