Marina Kazantseva is a third-year student. A romantic girl who read Dumas and Mayne Reid novels while growing up, Marina is in love with her sport's teacher Konstantin Pavlovich, however, while Konstantin is aware of her feelings, he does not take them seriously. Meanwhile her classmate, Varia blames Marina for her abusive childhood and is planning her revenge. Fifteen years ago, Marina's father, Boris had an affair with Varia's mother, Lyudmila. When Boris's wife, Yekaterina discovered the affair, she returned her husband to the family after creating a very public scandal. Yekaterina then used her position as District Public Education Department Inspector to make sure that her husband's mistress was refused employment from every educational institution in town. Lyudmila became an alcoholic, regularly beating her daughter out of frustration and despair until Varia found the strength to stand up to her mother and left home. Living on the streets, however, was hard, and in order to survive, Varia was forced into prostitution, and it was her pimp Isaac, who placed her at the college.