Set in Russia during the Nineteenth Century, THE CHERRY ORCHARD is based on the play by Anton Chekhov and is concerned with the effects of industrialisation and social change in Russia. In the film, aristocratic Madame Ranevskaya returns to her cherry orchard after a sojourn in Paris. She is devastated to discover that she has lost her land thanks to a default on the mortgage, which threatens her own financial future and that of her freed serfs.