Herman Korolyov, 33, is getting by, working a meaningless executive job in a big city. One day he gets a strange call and learns that his older brother has mysteriously disappeared. Herman must go back to his hometown to defend the family business - a small gas station (and with it, old friends and a girlfriend from the past) - against the 'kukuruzniks', mafia-type gangs that are grabbing up businesses and land in the Donbas region and turning them into corn fields and railways that lead nowhere.

The protagonist, Herman has to come back to his native Donbas after years spent away. He has to look into the case of his brother's sudden disappearance. Herman meets real and unreal characters, his childhood friends and the local mafia. And suddenly, to his own surprise, he decides to stay in his native town with people who love and believe him and need his defense.