1915, the First World War. In Petrograd, the young futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky meets a married couple, Lilya and Osip Briki. He reads them his poem "The Cloud in his Pants," and Lilya and Osip immediately and forever fall in love with Mayakovsky's poetry, realizing that they have an extraordinary talent, a poetic genius. And Vladimir falls in love with Lilya, also immediately and forever.