The true story is of Ivan Sanchin, the KGB officer who was Stalin__APOS__s private film projectionist from 1939 until Stalin__APOS__s death. Told from Sanchin__APOS__s view, the sympathetic but tragically flawed hero, squirrel, maintains unwavering faith in his __QUOTE__Master__QUOTE__ despite the arrest of his neighbors and his involvement with their daughter, his wife__APOS__s affair with the chilling State Security chief Lavrentii Beria and her tragic decline, and the deadly political machinations within the Kremlin he witnesses firsthand.