Having been scalded by boiling water earlier that day, and with little chance to survive the severe winter night, a stray dog is left for dead on the streets. Lamenting his fate, he is ill-prepared for the chance arrival of a wealthy professor who befriends him and takes him home. However, it seems the professor's motives are not entirely altruistic - an expert in rejuvenation, he sees his new charge as the potential subject for a bizarre experiment, and implants glands from a dead criminal in the dog. The resulting half-man, half-beast is, as to be expected, a monstrosity, yet one that fits in remarkably well with Soviet society.
Mikhail Bulgakov's A Dog's Heart is a satire on the Russian Revolution and on Soviet society. Through his surreal, often grotesque humour, Bulgakov creates a new twist to the 'Frankenstein' parable.