1904. The Russian-Japanese War. Manchuria. Russian military hospital on the retreat stations in a half-destroyed Chinese village. The head of the hospital Sergey Karenin learns that the wounded officer Count Vronsky is the person who ruined his mother Anna Karenina. Harboring no illusions and expecting no answers, Karenin comes to Vronsky and asks him the question which has been tormenting him all his life: what made his mother cross the line?