This documentary is the unvarnished portrait of a pugnacious woman – harsh, full of sweet dreams and curses, tender, rich only in children – five to be exact. They live crowded together in a humble hut on runners that provides little protection against storms. It’s an archaic, nomadic life in the middle of nowhere. They eat the raw meat of the reindeer they kill. Their mouths smeared with blood, the children laugh into the camera, living a life between neglect and freedom. The traditions of the Nenets people have shrunk to the half-believed remains of magical thinking. They know little of life beyond the icy wilderness. The film uses long takes to explore the web of alcohol-soaked relationships full of violence when Ivanna goes to the city to visit the father of her children. His clumsy, mumbled declarations of love are evidence of nothing so much as his state of deterioration. But he hits her one time too many, and Ivanna decides to leave behind her life on the tundra.