A screen adaptation of the autobiographical series Notes of a Young Doctor by Mikhail Bulgakov. The year is 1917. It is a time of turmoil, revolution, hope, and loss. The 23-year-old Dr. Polyakov arrives in the provincial town of N to work at the local hospital. While fighting for the life of a patient one day, Dr. Polyakov puts his own life in danger. He is saved with an injection of morphine, the most powerful drug at the time. But Polyakov doesn’t believe that a sensible man, especially a doctor like himself, can fall victim to a crippling addiction.