About the title
Vasily Kirsanov is a former bank clerk turned unsuccessful illusionist, dreaming of putting on a show "almost like Copperfield's." For the sake of the stage, he persuades his wife Svetlana to sell their spacious apartment and move with their two children into a cramped one-room flat. The show flops, and the new apartment turns out to be unlivable. In a desperate search for a solution, Kirsanov finds a suspiciously good deal and spends his last money on a spacious three-room apartment. Only the apartment turns out not to be empty — a real ghost lives there.