Liza is a good masseuse, she has many clients, during the day time she accepts them at the salon, in the evening – at home. There is a heavy massage table behind a screen in the large room in a communal flat where her entire family lives, her clients lie down on it one after the other and Liza bustles around them, getting to both sides of the table, rubbing, kneading, slapping.

She is accustomed to constant work, her hands fly over the massage table, her look is concentrated. In the evening, having finished dealing with clients, she takes the money she has earned out of her pocket, gives it to her mother, looks with satisfaction at how her mother puts the crumpled banknotes in her wallet. Her mother is a small, crooked old woman. Fearful of bothering clients she quietly moves from the room to the kitchen, she does all the household chores for the family – goes shopping, cooks dinner, feeds the children.

Liza has two sons, one is in the second grade at school, another is at college, life for both of them passes in the same room. Her younger son comes from school, immediately switches on the TV when the next series is on, he informs Liza in passing about his grades and what has happened at school.

Working on the next client Liza nods, praises the boy: “Fine fellow!” and if he asks her about something she says: ”Hold on, darling, until I'm not so busy”. But the boy knows that she is always so busy, and he goes with his question to his father who lives in the next room. Liza is divorced from the boy's father, her ex-husband drinks and does not make money. The elder boy sits at his table and does lessons, sometimes he distracts himself from them and exchanges a couple of phrases with the younger one who demonstrates a fair knowledge about what is on TV. Sometimes Liza asks him to go somewhere to do some chores, at first he protests, but finally agrees and does everything.

When the children were little Liza fussed with them around music schools, skating rinks and museums, she looked for good sourcream and fruit for them in the bazaar, now it all has passed, making money has become the sole concern and sense of her life. She often complains of that life, but at heart she likes her own independence, she likes her ability to make money and provide for her family.

Liza is thirty six, she looks younger, she is elegant and lovely, still, work is a substitute for any personal life for her. One day a friend Katia she works with at the clinic comes to her, they have coffee behind the screen on the massage table, Katia suddenly says that she is going to marry and leave for America. Rounding blue eyes on her rosy face Katia enthusiastically tells Liza how she has found an American fiance through a marriage agency; he arrived to St.Petersburg with a friend, a Russian immigrant whom he brought especially for consultations regarding his future bride. They both arranged a preview of the candidates in their apartment, each girl was given an hour – having forgotten her umbrella there and having returned to take it Katia saw another girl at the same table with tea and cakes. Still she was lucky to win the contest: she purposely did not use any make-up that day and braided her hair so the Russian who had influence with the American liked her modesty. Liza looks at Katia in amazement and Katia, smoking a cigarette, says that she is fed up with her life in a Russia where you struggle desperately, now she will at least not worry about earning her bread and butter.

For the several following days Liza is quiet, and while massaging clients she thoughtfully observes the shabby walls of her room. Alone she comes up to the mirror, sees the first grey hair, small wrinkles. Liza recalls the pictures Katia showed her – smiling sun-tanned people and Katia’s athletic fiance. Liza looks out the window at wet snow covering everything in twilight slush and for the first time in recent years she does not want her clients to come.

Soon Liza is already obsessed by a new idea: she asks her mother to buy several international envelopes at the post office, she takes pictures of herself in a long evening gown extracted from the depths of the wardrobe, she sends the letters to the addresses taken from a personals magazine and by the New Year she already expects the arrival of her new fiance Garry.

Liza completely re-models her home by the time of his visit – the massage table is moved from the center of the room to a corner – Liza still accepts clients, but without former enthusiasm. The boys’ tables disappear from the room – for the time of her guest’s visit Liza rents a room for them from a neighbour living in another place – now two folding beds also stand in the middle of the spare room, her children sit on them aimlessly in the evening, watching TV, unable to find anything else to do. Her ex-husband keeps up with these preparations with malicious commentary, he visits their sons, says that their mother has gone nuts.

Finally Garry arrives, Liza dyes her hair in time for his arrival, her eyes shine, it seems all her life she has been waiting for this middle-aged man in shabby jeans telling her the same exotic words as the heroes of the American TV series do. She walks with Garry around the city, worries that his feet are frozen, cooks borsch and blini for him, falls asleep in his arms on a new couch bought especially for his arrival occupying the place of the massage table now.

Garry’s visit is darkened only by the escapade of Liza’s ex-husband who becomes drunk on New Years Eve and gives Garry a black eye. Garry leaves for America with a black eye, but with the fiance visa forms filled out for Liza. Liza’s children are not mentioned there, both boys unanimously claim that they will not go anywhere: the elder one says that he does not wish to leave his college, the younger one does not like Garry who speaks a strange language, he prefers to stay with his grandmother and father. Garry is not eager to adopt anyone either, he promises to pay a monthly maintenance for the boys. With animation Liza proves to her mother in the kitchen that she also needs a personal life at last, that in a few years she will already be old and not needed by either children or men.

In half a year she is in America, she stands at the window in Garry’s apartment, she looks at how he plays in the street with his dogs. Instead of the romantic walks in the park amidst flowers hand in hand that Garry promised her she vacuums carpets, picks up things from the floor that Garry throws around, cleans after his dogs, cooks. Garry is a tax-accountant, he works at home, he sits at the computer, permanently drinks beer. He has a low percent of sugar in his blood, he must eat eight times a day. If Liza does not manage to bring him a meal in time he becomes irritated, yells at her, then, having eaten, calms down and sometimes apologizes. Garry is ten years older than he claimed in his advert, he wears a toupe to hide his bald head, intimacy with him is already a burden for Liza. Garry has not a penny to spare, Liza’s attempt to make some money herself offering massage to some neighbour women brings a storm of indignation from Garry, it is not allowed in America without a license. Garry declines Liza’s request to get this license saying that he promised her a comfortable, but simple life, school costs money and he sends not so little to her children anyway. Most of all Liza is depressed by her complete dependence on her husband, she looks sullen and meets Garry’s glance without a smile when, laughing, he cries something from the lawn to her.

Then one day a door opens in the St.Petersburg communal flat where Liza’s family still lives, a big suit case appears and Liza appears behind it. She arrives without any notice, that’s why the boys and their grandmother chattering something while having tea at a round table brought from the kitchen, are paralyzed with amazement, her elder son comes round first and mistrustfully smiles -- "Mom"?

Soon everything in the room returns to the way it had been in former times: the round table goes back to the kitchen, the massage table occupies its place again. Liza practises her magic on her clients again, the boys do lessons huddling in their places. Katia comes to visit Liza, she has also come back from America. Katia tells Liza of her adventures, she says that her American had finally informed her that they did not match each other and advised her to appeal to another agency there if she wished to stay in the country. Having followed his advice she married another American in just three days, but it turned out that he had an evil mother who did not allow Katia to use the washing machine and feed her child appropriately, things reached the point of violence, Katia called the police and her first fiance, who arrived and took her, crying, back, promised to help with the divorce and almost crying himself confessed that he still could not marry her as her three-year-old daughter was badly brought up and Katia’s own figure was not entirely what he needed. Looking through cigarette smoke deep in thought Katia says that both her first fiance and her husband were somewhat strange: while sightseeing in St.Petersburg her fiance learned travel books by heart and her parents even worried that he was a spy, and her husband collected model cars in his free time, played with children’s construction toys and also watched cartoons and now she thinks that something was wrong with his head. However, Katia likes American culture, she has learned the language pretty well and she hopes that next time she will be luckier.

Katia really leaves again soon, this time to New Zealand and, thinking of her, Liza promises herself that she will never repeat her previous foolishness.

But in two years she is again at the other end of the world, a wonderful view of the mountains, ocean and wild forest of Vancouver Island can be seen from her window, but Liza has no time to adore all this beauty, she is massaging a client. Her new husband is an owner of the rehabilitation center where, having confirmed her qualification, Liza works now. This husband is even ten years older than Garry, but Liza does not regret that she had chosen him – thanks to him she firmly stands on her own feet and can send her own money to Russia.