The true story is of Ivan Sanchin, the KGB officer who was Stalin's private film projectionist from 1939 until Stalin's death. Told from Sanchin's view, the sympathetic but tragically flawed hero, squirrel, maintains unwavering faith in his "Master" despite the arrest of his neighbors and his involvement with their daughter, his wife's affair with the chilling State Security chief Lavrentii Beria and her tragic decline, and the deadly political machinations within the Kremlin he witnesses firsthand.
An unexpected discovery pushes a vengeful, battle-hardened soldier into tracking down a charismatic movie star — the man he suspects of having a secret, whirlwind romance with his wife.
