In 1920s Soviet Russia, a fallen aristocrat, a priest and a con artist search for a treasure of jewels hidden inside one of twelve dining chairs, lost during the revolution.

Ross McElwee travels through the North Carolina tobacco belt in search of the ancient southern traditions associated with tobacco growing and use, while comparing his filmmaking to commercial cinema, represented by Bright Leaf, a melodrama directed by Michael Curtiz in 1950, starring Gary Cooper, apparently based on the life of his great-grandfather.

After becoming a minister's wife, Živka changes her former way of life and becomes a lady. However, her fashionable way of life is of short duration, since her husband is forced to resign after being involved in a scandal. Based on highly popular Serbian comedy novel by Branislav Nušić.