Five-year-old Sasha often listens to the opera Madame Butterfly. The story of Madame Butterfly becomes for Sasha the key to the dramas that take place in the family, but which she still cannot understand.
Sasha grew up in a city in Soviet Kazakhstan. The girl's mother is almost always away and her father no longer lives with them. Sasha becomes the reason for living of her grandmother Valentine. In her house, the little girl takes refuge in the imaginary world of books and music.