One evening, while strolling along the main artery of St. Petersburg, a distraught artist and a brazen lieutenant encounter a mysterious prostitute and a young housewife. In their separate pursuits of the women through the labyrinths of side streets, both men come to realize all is not what it seems on the glittery avenue. As the rational plane of life slants beneath their feet, these self-deluded characters soon discover that between everything ordinary there is a crack and deep in the shadows, peering up, are the maddening fantasies of the human soul.