POISONS OR THE WORLD HISTORY OF POISONING

Stage actor Oleg and his wife Katya are watching TV when the doorbell rings: Their new neighbour Arnold has come to introduce himself. The three have dinner together and drink and laugh. But soon is increasing evidence that Katya has an affair with Arnold. While in a bar drowning his sorrow with vodka, Oleg gets to know the pensioner Prokhorov. Oleg tells him about his woe, whereupon the cosmopolitan Prokhorov gives him an unusual advice how to solve the problem: Oleg shall poison his unfaithful wife! To emphasize his idea, Prokhorov tells the astonished Oleg about numerous historically confirmed cases of poisonous murders, where emperors, kings and popes got rid of unloved fellow men. Some of these anecdotes are being illustrated in lavishly decorated flashbacks. After initial hesitation, Oleg decides to follow the old man’s advice. But the plan isn’t easy to fulfill – especially as Oleg soon has not only to deal with Katya, but with her mother as well. So he has to develope strategies for survival.