In a crowded Russian apartment block, Svetlana Gorzhaltsan and her friends make their fun by tormenting Verka, the older woman who lives on the ground floor. Verka wears heavy orthopedic shoes and walks with a limp. That is enough to make her the target of relentless childish cruelty. From the perspective of adulthood, Svetlana Gorzhaltsan reflects on the burden those shoes placed on the long-dead Verka.