Serhiy, 36, inherits a plot of marshy land. His wife Tetyana, also 36, wants to drain the marsh and plant an orchard on the plot. Their neighbour Kolya, 48, is trying to persuade the couple not to drain the marsh - he digs worms there and takes them to a city market to sell. Serhiy starts looking at the ecosystem of the marsh closer and discovers that the worms Kolya is digging out are an endemic species. He invents a name for his warms and creates his own little wildlife reserve  banning other villagers from digging his endemics. The villagers aren’t too pleased and neither is Serhiy’s wife who leaves him because, as she puts it, “she can’t spend the rest of her life in this bog”. Serhiy soon falls in love again with Maryna, 27, but even his new girlfriend cannot persuade him to leave the village - as Serhiy believes his worms need him. Gradually, he alienates his neighbours and loses Maryna, who leaves the village alone, but all the while is working towards registering his worms as endangered species. Then comes a shock - the worms aren’t actually rare at all and can be found in most marshes across Ukraine. Serhiy is on the verge of leaving his village to go after Maryna but it is late February 2022, and Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. All villagers unite around Serhiy to stand up to Russian invaders who are destroying their precious swamp.