House of Meetings

A dark, gothic story about two brothers, one woman, and the terrible choices that follow them for decades. In 1946 Moscow—still shaken by war and rising antisemitism—the brothers fall in love with the same Jewish girl, creating a quiet but dangerous rivalry. Their lives become even more tangled when both men are sent to Norlag, a brutal labor camp deep in the Arctic. There, an unsettling event inside the camp’s “House of Meetings” changes everything, leaving wounds that follow them long after their release.

The story is told by the surviving brother, now an old man, as he writes a final confession to his American stepdaughter. Through his letter, we see how one forbidden moment grew into a lifetime of guilt, longing, and broken loyalties.

Bleak, intimate, and powerfully haunting, House of Meetings explores how love can survive cruelty—and how some betrayals never stop echoing.