A doctor finds his old diary while answering to the authorities about self-prescribing morphine. He has a series of comic exchanges with his young and inexperienced self, mocking him for his youthful looks and guiding him through his early difficulties on the job.

The inexperienced younger doctor is forced to carry out the operation of his career. His older self does little to ease his nerves.

In spite of his success in the operating room, life in the snow-bound hospital begins to take its toll on the young doctor. His efforts to combat his feelings of boredom and isolation are defeated and he wonders how much longer he can last. Nursing abdominal pains and two harrowing cases, the young doctor is tempted by the allure of morphine...

Balancing a heavy workload with a developing morphine habit, the young doctor finds it increasingly difficult to conceal his burgeoning addiction from his colleagues. After one humiliation too many, he resolves to make a clean start and a dedicated effort to combat the syphilis epidemic. But a blizzard-bound journey to visit a dying patient proves to be his toughest test yet.

It is 1918 and as the Civil War rages through Russia, quiet Mureyvo's Young Doctor is more concerned with hiding his growing morphine addiction from an inspection.

Freshly rehabilitated, the Old Doctor is attacked aboard a train for his morphine addiction. In 1918, the Young Doctor falls in love with a beautiful aristocrat.

Pelageya is sick with either malaria or typhus as the Young Doctor becomes more fixated with Natasha.

The young Doctor delivers a self-serving eulogy at a funeral. The Bolsheviks take over. The Young Doctor is required to make a life-changing decision when a train is derailed.