Moscow, 1948. As the virtuoso violinist Ilya Grenko leaves the concert hall to thunderous applause, his Stradivarius in hand, he is arrested and taken to the terrifying Lubyanka, the KGB headquarters, without understanding what he is accused of. After days of deprivation, humiliation, and interrogation, Ilya signs an absurd confession that condemns him to twenty years in the Gulag, after he is promised that his wife Galina and their two very young children will not be harmed.
Moscow, 1948. As the virtuoso violinist Ilya Grenko leaves the concert hall to thunderous applause, his Stradivarius in hand, he is arrested and taken to the terrifying Lubyanka, the KGB headquarters, without understanding what he is accused of. After days of deprivation, humiliation, and interrogation, Ilya signs an absurd confession that condemns him to twenty years in the Gulag, after being promised that his wife Galina and their two very young children will not be harmed. But his family is sent into exile at the ends of the earth, to an open-air hell: Kazakhstan. Grenko's priceless violin disappears forever. Two generations and a few murders later, Ilja's grandson, Sasha, sets out in search of the Stradivarius and learns of the darkest hours in his family's history, crushed by the totalitarian regime and its henchmen, indifferent to all human dignity.
