In 1936, Stalin began a ruthless purge to destroy all opposition. Over the course of 2 years, almost 700,000 people were executed in the USSR. Proof of the massacres was to remain forever hidden in state service archives, and it is only thanks to historian Yuri Dmitriev’s work that thousands learned where their loved ones were buried. But his combing of the forests in search of mass graves met with disapproval from the Russian authorities. Dmitriev was accused of paedophilia and sent to a penal colony. The film examines the events leading up to his arrest as well as Russia’s and the USSR’s secret history, showing that, at least in terms of the mechanisms for distorting reality, the period of the Great Terror is still highly relevant.