A grieving young gay American journeys deep into Eastern Europe during the early '90s to claim an unexpected inheritance from a great uncle. After a period of adjustment, he befriends a small group of young men and women who are struggling to shake off decades, and even centuries, of subjugation. Even more startling, he unearths a thinly veiled memoir by his benefactor detailing a clandestine love that survived war, genocide and Soviet rule. He naively uses the inheritance money to refurbish a coffee house originally opened by his uncle, and in the process, learns a vital lesson about love and loss, and the cyclical nature of oppression.