A business trip takes Ilja, a Russian geologist who emigrated from Moscow to California during the chaotic nineties, back to his homeland. On behalf of an international corporation, he visits Baku and the Apsheron Peninsula by the Caspian Sea, a site of oil extraction since the times of the Nobels and Rothschilds. The former Soviet facilities are now owned by American and Arab companies. Ilja, the oil expert, reunites with his school friend Chaschem, an ornithologist who guards a falcon colony in the Shirvan Nature Reserve near the Iranian border. The native Persian also works as an artist, healer, and dancing dervish. His aura and energy captivate Ilja. Chaschem's lifestyle, devoted entirely to nature and spirituality, challenges Ilja's own existence. With seismographic intuition, Alexander Ilitschewski unfolds a geo.