Avalon

Moscow, December 1925. A member of the OGPU, Vadim Arsenyev—who is in a psychiatric hospital—meets Sergey Yesenin there. The famous poet is extremely agitated; visions visit him, and outside the window he sees a black man—this happens after Yesenin opens a silver cigarette case and a nagging melody starts to play. He senses that trouble is coming soon and asks Vadim for help…

Soon afterward, Arsenyev is taken from the hospital and brought to Lubyanka, to the deputy chairman of the OGPU, Menzhinsky. The latter explains that in recent times several strange crimes have taken place: in different circumstances prominent Soviet figures died—Kotovsky, Frunze, and finally Sergey Yesenin, who committed suicide in a Leningrad hotel called “Angleterre.” Vadim is assigned to investigate the circumstances of Yesenin’s death, because the poet encoded his name in his last poem…