Could One Imagine? 1981

High school student Katya Shevchenko Tatyana Aksyuta moves to a new district and quickly befriends classmate Roman Lavochkin Nikita Mikhajlovsky at their school. What starts as a simple friendship blossoms into a sincere and enduring romance, a connection that seems to catch the adults around them off guard. Roman’s father, Konstantin [Albert Filozov], once carried a quiet affection for Katya’s mother Lyudmila [Irina Miroshnichenko], who chose to reject him, a history that shadows the present relationship. Roman’s mother Vera [Lidiya Fedoseyeva-Shukshina], consumed by jealousy toward Katya’s family, outwardly resents Katya and her daughter, and she is determined to keep the teenagers apart by force.

To drive a wedge between the young lovers, Vera engineers a calculated ruse: she transfers Roman to a different school and forbids any meeting or correspondence. Yet the bond between Katya and Roman resists distance; their feelings persist even as walls of misunderstanding rise around them. Vera escalates her plan by falsehoods, persuading Roman to travel to Leningrad to “care for” a supposedly ill grandmother. That grandmother, played by Tatyana Pelttser, has no real illness—she carries out the deception to sever the lovers’ ties.

Within this tense atmosphere, Katya remains determined to uncover the truth. She receives quiet support from their circle, notably from their teacher Tatyana Nikolaevna [Yelena Solovey], who navigates her own personal life while standing up for the students. It falls to Tatyana Nikolaevna to reveal Vera’s deception to Lyudmila and her husband, and Katya makes a bold decision: she will travel to Leningrad to unearth the truth for herself.

Back in Moscow, Roman is left perplexed by Katya’s silence; every letter she writes seems to vanish, intercepted by his watching grandmother. He reaches out to Tatyana Nikolaevna, hoping for clarity, only to be misidentified as Mihail [Leonid Filatov], the teacher’s former lover. The miscommunication becomes a painful moment, and the warning to “never call again” echoes through Roman’s confusion. Yet the truth gradually surfaces from a tense phone conversation between the grandmother and Vera, revealing the heart of the rift: a calculated plot to keep Katya and Roman apart.

Shocked by the betrayal of those closest to him, Roman retreats to his room. Katya, sensing the danger and motivated by love, travels to Leningrad to confront what is really happening. The two lovers finally collide with the truth and their defiant hope persists. As Roman peers out his window, Katya stands nearby in the city, and the obstacles looming over their relationship threaten one last time. In a climactic moment, Roman steps onto the windowsill, loses his balance, and falls from the frame—only to be cushioned by a snowdrift. Katya rushes to his side, pulling him to his feet, and the two collapse back into the snow together, their fate sealed by the quiet, unspoken promise of renewed togetherness. The scene is watched by two passing children, a quiet testament to the enduring innocence of youth amid the complexities of adult schemes.