In this quietly moving odyssey, two men set out on a road trip thousands of miles across western Russia. Miron’s beloved wife Tanya has died and he asks his friend Aist to help him bury her according to the rituals of the Merya culture, an ancient tribe from Lake Nero which both men belong to. Intertwining folk legend with the limits of friendship and fidelity, they perform the rituals with birds, buntings (the original title of the film is ‘The Buntings’), in the back seat.