Film-reflection on the facts of manifestation of violence, cruelty that took place in the national republics during perestroika in the USSR. Uzbekistan, Tashkent; women with young children are walking in the streets. The townspeople are watching the performance of a street tightrope walker. Women's Prison; a female prisoner talks about the reason for being in prison - the murder of her newborn child. The midwife takes delivery. Women's boxing. A police squad on a city street, near a residential building at the scene of a crime involving the robbery of an apartment and the murder of a man. The corpse of a man on the ground. Newspaper reports of ethnic clashes. Interviews of prisoners - participants in the events in Fergana, Kokand.