Moscow. December 1946. Evening. Victor sits on an empty seat next to the girl. The girl tells him that the place is taken, since she came with a friend. However, Victor shows her his ticket and describes the girl who sold him this ticket. In it, Gela - and this is what the girl's name is - recognizes her friend. In the intermission, it turns out that Victor is here for the first time. He is trying to find out where Gel came from - she speaks Russian with errors and with an accent that betrays a foreigner in her. Victor thinks that she is from the Baltic states, but it turns out - from Poland. She and her friend study at the conservatory. She is a singer. Gela is angry that her friend preferred a walk with a young man to the concert.

After the concert, Victor escorts Gel to her hostel. On the way, Gela tells Victor about herself. Russian was taught by her father. Victor talks about his life. He is studying as a technologist: he will create wine. Reads to her poems by Omar Khayyam. Victor wants to meet her also and makes an appointment.

At the bus stop, Victor looks at his watch. Gel appears. Victor tells her that he was afraid that she would not come. He does not know where to go. Gela likes that he is frank, that he has a character. Advises him to understand: every woman is a queen. Meeting point. An empty room, Gela is about to speak with Warsaw.While they are waiting for her turn, she tells Victor how sick she was for two days, how she was treated with tea with raspberries. Finally, Gele is given a cabin. When she returns, Victor wants to find out with whom she was talking, but Gela laughs, fingering aloud the names of different young people. Midnight soon. Gelya wants Victor to take her to the hostel. But Victor does not even think of parting with her and asks for tea.

Museum Victor brings Gel here, as they have nowhere else to go: he himself is not a Muscovite. Gela tells him about the Polish city of Wawel. The Polish Queen Jadwiga is buried there. She was the patroness of the University of Krakow, and all students still write notes to her with requests to help pass the exam or facilitate her studies. Gel herself wrote to her too. So, during conversations, Gela and Victor walk around the museum, sometimes they go behind the statues and kiss.

Dorm room. A gel in a dressing gown puts hair in front of a mirror. Victor enters. Gelya chokes him that he came late: so they may not have time to meet friends for New Year's Eve. Victor brought her a gift - new shoes. Gel in response gives him a new tie, it takes several minutes to put on a dress. When Gela returns, he sees that Victor is sleeping. Gela steps aside, puts out a lot of light. Then he sits opposite Victor and looks at him carefully. Silence. The clock begins to beat slowly. Twelve. Then, after a while, an hour. Gela continues to sit in the same position. Victor opens his eyes. Gel wishes him a Happy New Year. Victor apologizes to her for having overslept everything.It turns out that he unloaded the cars to earn Gele a gift. Gel is not angry with him. They drink wine, listen to music, dance. Then Gela sings Victor an old funny song in Polish. Victor tells her that he wants her to marry him. He wants to make her happy so she never fears anything ...

The same room. Gela stands at the window with her back to the door. They’ve been living at the camp for ten days, because Gel decided that they need to get used to each other. Victor returned from the tasting. He is cheerful and again speaks with Gels about marriage. Gela is cold with him. She tells him the news: a new law has been passed prohibiting marriage with foreigners. Victor promises the weeping Gele to come up with something so that they can be together. However, he never succeeded in inventing anything. Soon he was transferred to Krasnodar, where he had no news about Gel.

Ten years pass. Victor arrives in Warsaw. He calls Gele and makes an appointment. Victor says that he came to colleagues, that he became a scientist, defended his thesis. Gela congratulates him and calls to a small restaurant where her friend Yulek Stadtler sings. From there you can see all of Warsaw. In a restaurant talking, Victor says he is married. Gel is also married. Her husband is a music critic. Stadtler notices Helena and asks her to sing. She goes on stage and sings a song that Viktor sang ten years ago, on New Year's Eve. When she returns, she tells Victor that when she arrives in Wawel, she always writes notes to Queen Jadwiga so that she will return Victor to her. Victor tells her that he remembers everything.

Street. Lamp.Gela accompanies Victor to the hotel. He needs to leave already, but Gel does not let him in, saying that he must understand: if he leaves now, they will never see each other again. She calls Victor to Sohachev - it's not far. Tomorrow Victor will be back. But he does not agree, asks her to understand that he is not alone here and cannot leave like this, all night. Gelena recalls: he once laughed that she was constantly afraid of everything. Victor answers: this is how life turned out. Gelena says that she understood everything, and leaves.

Another ten years pass. In early May, Victor arrives in Moscow and goes to a concert in which Gel participates. In the interval, he goes to her in the artistic room. She meets him calmly, even rejoices in his arrival. Victor says that he is doing well, now he is a doctor of science. In Moscow, he is on a business trip. And I parted with my wife. Gelena says he is a hero. She herself also broke up with her husband and even with the second. Her friend Yulek Stadtler died. She says that life goes forward, that everything has its own meaning: in the end, she became a good singer. He notices that now young people even marry foreigners. Then he finds himself not resting at all, and the intermission soon ends. He asks Victor not to forget and call her. Victor apologizes for bothering her and promises to call. They say goodbye.

Voice of Victor. Victor complains that time is always running out. And that’s just good.