Based on real events in a surreal Soviet city in 1963, a former nuclear specialist Valery Kolkhanov has mastered what it takes to survive in a Siberian gulag. But on one ordinary day, all that changes: Valery's university mentor steps in and sweeps Valery from the frozen prison camp to a mysterious unnamed town that houses a set of nuclear reactors and is surrounded by a forest so damaged it looks like the trees have rusted from within. As Valery begins his work, he is struck by the questions his research raises: why is there so much radiation in this area?
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