Sofia, 7 November 1952. During a parade featuring a mock-up of the cruiser Aurora, Maria, daughter of a man condemned by the People’s Court, survives as a prostitute in a once-grand hotel, protected by Axinia, a regime sculptor trapped in fear, submission and compromise. Italian communist journalist Marcello Conti arrives to cover the event and falls in love with Maria, while a powerful secret police officer, a failed singer, a self-proclaimed aesthete and a sexual predator, stands in their way. As monuments rise and people vanish, love becomes a crime, and escape seems possible only through a final illusion: the fake Aurora turned into a desperate vehicle for freedom.