Svetlana Alexievich's book, based on the true account of the wife of a former fireman in Pripyat, Belarus, is adapted by Lucy Baldwyn. On the 15th anniversary of the 1986 reactor disaster the drama tells of a powerful love story, interwoven with contemporary interviews from Ukrainian witnesses. Newly married Ludmilla recounts the events of the night of 26 April 1986, when her husband Vasily was sent to fight the fires which spread from the damaged nuclear reactor. Vasily, along with other injured firefighters, was taken in secret to Moscow and placed in an isolation unit.