Katerina works at the Marxist-Leninist institute in Moscow. Alexsey flees from the Soviet Union and his unrequited love for Katarina. Twenty years later, they meet again while she is shepherding a group of Soviet tourists around Switzerland. He has remade his life in Geneva. He spends his free moments seeking out travelling compatriots, inviting them to somptuous feasts, showering them with dollars and solicitude. He goes down a hotel where he meets Katarina. Alexsey convinces the Russians to accept his invitation to dine by offering them cash. He then whisks Katarina off to a chateau, where he asks for her hand in marriage. At gun point. She promises to give an answer during the dinner party. Alexsey presides, all the while awaiting Katarina's return. Hugo convinces his father to abandon. En route, they meet her. She turnsdown Alexsey's magnanimous offer, preferring her difficult life in Moscow to an inconceivable life of luxury...