The end of the road

The plot revolves around Nina Cherkasskaya, an elderly woman who has spent her entire life training dogs at the circus. Now she lives alone. Nina plans to do a performance coinciding with her birthday. She arrives in town to stay with her daughter Lara, who Nina left with her father when Lara was a child. Nina’s daughter and her husband immediately make her feel unwelcome. Later it turns out that the event that Nina had been looking forward to is nothing like the one the organizers had described to her on the phone. When Nina arrives at the local concert hall, she finds that her name is not even on the list of performers. Eventually, Nina makes it to the stage and tells the few remaining audience members her life story.