Invasion

Burmim, a veteran of the first Russian war with Napoleon and the battle of Austerlitz in 1805, returns from there not quite the same as he was. The young landowner begins to be tormented by strange attacks: his sense of smell sharpens, his body stops obeying, and then follows amnesia. He spends years in solitude, hiding his transformation. A chance encounter with a former love awakens an old feeling in him – and Burmin returns to society. In the Smolensk community, it seems that nothing has changed, but there hangs a vague premonition of an impending war: everyone talks about it, but they do not know that it is already at the doorstep.