About the title
Johannes's single mother is a student. While she spends time with hippies and takes part in protests against the war in Afghanistan, he is raised by his grandparents. Both strong-willed and hard to get along with, they argue constantly, until his mother leaves to work in Finland and Johannes has to figure out all of life's complexities on his own. He falls head over heels in love with his classmate Vera, gets into fights, gets punished... all while, in the background, an empire that once seemed eternal collapses. The vivid life of an Ingrian family in the final years of Soviet Estonia.
