American actress and documentary filmmaker Amy Grappell takes viewers on a philosophical journey into the very heart of freedom as she follows a New York acting troupe into glastnost for a historical 1991 trip set to stage the first-ever American/Ukrainian theatrical co-production. During the 1920s, theater director Les Kurbas put his life on the line and revolutionized the world of theater by staging the world classics for Ukrainian theatergoers. Though his dream of bringing Ukrainian theater to an international audience would ultimately end in tragedy when he was put to death on one of Stalin's purges, Kurbas' dream lives on as Grappell's group begins to rehearse a play entitled Light from the East and based on Kurbas' noble creative efforts. When the troupe receives word that Mikhail Gorbachev has been kidnapped and that the Kremlin has fallen under a military coup, the actions of the Ukrainian population in fighting for their independence and staking claim to their liberty inspires the performers to move forward with their production at all costs despite the efforts of the American Embassy to convince them to abandon their efforts.