January 1989. Boris Nikolaievich Yeltsin, a high communist party functionary, is in disfavour. A few photographs explain his origin and past, a gallery of portraits of the highest Soviet dignitaries demarcates the context of his career and aspirations. His present position is characterized in the environment of his office building, the model of his official car, and the interior and furnishings of the apartment allotted to him. His state of mind is borne out by a television broadcast from the party congress now in progress, whose main speaker is Gorbatchev. Yeltsin watches the screen with the sound turned off. He then sits down at his kitchen table. In a prolonged shot we watch the enigmatic, impenetrable expression of this self-absorbed, rubust man - the next Russian president.