In 1917, the October Revolution shook Russia. Just a few years later, socialism was established. Lenin, the leader of the revolution, struggles against physical and mental decline in a country house near Moscow. The bitter battles against political opponents, the struggle with the hesitant Bolsheviks for revolutionary intervention, his tireless work for a new society based on the principles of Marxism, an assassination attempt by the anarchist Fanny Kaplan, and several strokes have weakened the revolutionary, brilliant theorist, and charismatic political leader. In the company of a few close confidants, cut off from the Central Committee, he grapples for political influence. His companion Trotsky, the cultural politician Lunacharsky, and others who come to visit Lenin at his dacha evoke memories of the brief moment when everything historically began.