While post-communist Moscow deals with transitional chaos, Vassili is descending into despair at his wife Anna's chronic infertility. Following his father Sergey's footsteps to teach Russian at a prestigious university, he travels to Melbourne accompanied by a wrapped parcel to be delivered to a Helen Dalrymple of Mount Evelyn. A task that proves to be anything but straightforward. Miscast and adrift in his new home, Vassili awaits Anna's arrival. Bringing with her devastating news, it is not long until old resentments surface. At an idyllic guesthouse in the Dandenong Hills, the scene is set for a reckoning that will crack the secrets of the parcel Vassili's father gave him, and blow the family apart.