"Scary news about war with Germany turns Anfisa's life upside down. Her husband goes to the front and she stays alone in order to fight her own, non-front, and perhaps more terrible war. This other war didn't get in the Soviet chronicles, it remained hidden behind the doors of a communal apartment. Only widows live here. Each has its own room, its own table in the kitchen, its own basin in the corner, its own characters and its own mangled life. Ada, a former operetta singer, an extravagant retired lady of forty describes her life more vividly than others: "There was no love. Men and abortions. " Flyorova, an aristocrat with musical education, became a ""creature without gender and age with gray hair, a limp and a cane."" The third, rude and scandalous Panka, day and night, cares for fair distribution of the communal square meters. She is the only one who has a man. Disabled. Who doesn't speak, doesn't understand anything - but who smiles and won't go anywhere. The last neighbor, religious Kapa, it seems to relish the misfortunes and pain of others. When a cry breaks out in one of them, indifference and anger become the answer - all the human has been sucked up by the terrible, non-female path. It remains only to hide in your tiny cabin on the Widow Ship, put on a record 'Merry Widow' and wait for the Great Victory..."
