Life isn’t that great for the young and beautiful Elza. She can’t find fulfilment in the company of her boorish husband, nor in her work as a music teacher. Her discovery that she is pregnant only deepens her despair. Nevertheless, she doesn’t have sufficient courage to overcome her predicament – the traditional Buddhist society that shapes her life has taught her that the family has to come first. Her experience of unexpected loss seems to offer her a possible solution yet, above all, it shows her that solitude and alienation are a consequence of her own making. The cold and sorrow seeping into Elza’s heart are only intensified by the grey-white spectrum of winter landscapes in which most of the story is set. The director hauntingly contrasts the environment of her native Kalmyk region, known for its Buddhist beliefs and strongly patriarchal society, with the grim reality of modern life, where even time-honoured trades, such as fishing, have become vehicles for organised crime. And so the gulls – the souls of dead fishermen – circle above the wetlands in ever increasing numbers.