It is 1918 and as the Civil War rages through Russia, quiet Mureyvo's Young Doctor is more concerned with hiding his growing morphine addiction from an inspection.

Freshly rehabilitated, the Old Doctor is attacked aboard a train for his morphine addiction. In 1918, the Young Doctor falls in love with a beautiful aristocrat.

Pelageya is sick with either malaria or typhus as the Young Doctor becomes more fixated with Natasha.

After a tracheotomy makes young Vladimir famous, he is inundated with patients - but he begins to experience the embarrassing and unsavoury side effects that have been plaguing his older self . Repulsed by what is happening to his body, the young doctor vows to make a clean start and decides to open a specialist syphilis clinic to combat the disease rife in his remote village.