Xenia has her life completely under control. She leads a happy private life with her husband Sergej and her adolescent daughter Anja. Having just arrived back from a congress in Weimar, she starts organising a New Year's Eve party with her chaotic friend Vera, who is constantly falling in love, Marina, an out-of-work translator, and a few other good friends. Xenia's practice as a psychoanalyst is booming, and she has as many patients as she can possibly cope with. Then a colleague asks her to take over a case that she is having difficulty in handling. Unwillingly, and only because she owes her colleague a favour, Xenia agrees to meet the patient for a preliminary consultation. But the patient soon begins to interest her; in fact, he casts a spell over her with his intelligence and his charm. Xenia is so fascinated by the case that it is a long time before she notices that she is gradually getting out of her depth. This psycho-thriller, which is part of a cycle of three in each of which another of the three women friends is the main character, is Anna Dankowtsewa's debut – and a highly successful one at that.