Set in the gilt extravagance of the Kremlin’s most exclusive inner sanctums, as Communism sinks into a mire of corruption and bankruptcy and Perestroika foments among the poverty-stricken masses, the impassioned demimonde beauty, Irina, like a highly prized courtesan, weaves her spell of charisma and scandalous seduction in the greatest tradition of Russian all-time heroines since Anna Karenina.
From her humble origins, Irina soon rises to become a reigning symbol of desire in the carefully guarded “dolce vita” of Moscow’s elite. When she meets the perverse and erotic Ksciuscia who introduces Irina into the Capital’s highest circles and one day even to the powerful leading figure of Soviet culture, Vladimir. The all-consuming and violent love affair that ensues between Irina and Vladimir despite his highly respectable family, influential position, and the State, proves fatal.
The gradual destruction of Irina is like the slow agony of the dying totalitarian regime. The workings of an occult, like an embryonic Mafia, seem to be ruthlessly tracking her every move, and Irina falls helplessly prey to the general decadence and sinister chaos of a world in total collapse, the brutal heralding of a new dawn and a new State.