April 26th, 1986. On that day, Anya and Piotr celebrate their marriage. Little Valery and his father Alexei, a physicist at the power station in Chernobyl, plant an apple tree. Nikolai, the forest warden, makes his rounds in the surrounding forests.
Then, an accident occurs at the power station.
Insidiously, the radioactivity transforms nature. The rain is yellow, the trees turn red. Piotr, a volunteer fireman, leaves to extinguish the flames. He never returns. A few days later, the population is evacuated. Alexei, forced to keep silent by the authorities, prefers to disappear.
Ten years later, the deserted Pripyat has become a no man’s land and a bizarre tourist attraction. Anya comes to the Zone every month as a tour guide, while Valery goes there to look for traces of his father. And Nikolai continues to cultivate a poisonous garden.
With the passing of time, will they be able to accept the hope of a new life?