of Aleksei's grandfather's country house are seen. The young Aleksei, his mother and sister watch as the family barn burns down. In a dream sequence, Maria is washing her hair. In the postwar time frame, Aleksei is heard talking with his mother on the phone while rooms of an apartment are seen. Switching back to the prewar time frame, Maria is seen rushing frantically to her workplace as a proofreader at a printing press. She is worried about a mistake she may have overlooked, but is comforted by her colleague Liza (Alla Demidova), who then seemingly reduces her to tears with withering criticism. Back in the postwar period, Aleksei quarrels with his ex-wife, Natalia, who has divorced him and is living with their son Ignat. This is followed by newsreel scenes from the Spanish Civil War and of a balloon ascent in the U.S.S.R. In the next scene, in Aleksei's apartment, Ignat meets with a strange woman sitting at a table. At her request, Ignat reads a passage from a letter by Pushkin and receives a telephone call from his father Aleksei. Ignat answers a knock at the door, which turns out to be a woman who says she has the wrong apartment. When Ignat returns to the woman at the table, she has vanished, though the condensation from her teacup momentarily remains. Switching to wartime, the adolescent Aleksei is seen undergoing rifle training with a dour instructor, intercut with newsreel footage of World War II and the Sino-Soviet border conflict. Before the war, Maria visits her neighbor with Aleksei to seek toiletries. The woman introduces Maria to her son and requests she slaughter a cockerel, which she does. Aleksei and his sister reunite with their father at the war's end. The film then returns to the quarrel between Aleksei and his wife in the postwar sequence. Switching again to prewar time, vistas of the country house and surrounding countryside are followed by a dreamlike sequence showing a levitating Maria. The film then moves to the postwar time, showing Aleksei apparently on his deathbed with a mysterious malady and holding a small bird. The final scene is in the prewar time frame, showing a pregnant Maria intercut with scenes showing Maria young and old. (Old Maria is played by Tarkovsky's mother, Maria Vishnyakova.) Cast Several of the characters are played by the same actors. Filipp Yankovsky as the child Aleksei