are Oleg's mother, Anna (Lesley Ann Warren); his half-brother, Alex (Henry Thomas), a promising pianist; Anna's latest husband, the South American Miguel (Jsu Garcia); Oleg's lawyer, James (Randy Lowell); his gravely-ill friend Michael (Dean Stockwell); and Michael's wife, Jane (Brenda Bakke).Although he has been receiving some disturbing calls from Russia, Oleg naps and lets others take care of the party preparations. In another part of Los Angeles, Lisa(Jennifer Jason Leigh), a young mother, is returning her daughter Lori (Bailey Thompson) to her foster parents. When she returns home to her desolate trailer, a Social Worker (Joyce Guy) is waiting to remind her that, unless Lisa's living situation changes, she may permanently lose custody of her daughter.
As Lisa frets over how to resolve her dilemma, Oleg awakens to find that his guests have arrived and some unknown "benefactor" has sent a helicopter to deposit a statue of the Virgin Mary on his lawn. He calls Alex to confirm that their plan is still on. Downstairs he tells his mother Anna of his intention of turning over the business to Alex. Anna is aghast to learn this, but Oleg is unmoved by her pleas.
Oleg is riding into the party area on a white horse to open the festivities, as Lisa gets a phone call regarding a job. Although his guests are enjoying themselves, at the stroke of midnight, having played a game with his young cousins, Oleg is literally up a tree. As the guests prepare to leave or retire to their rooms, Oleg confronts his mother and accuses her of abandoning him as a child and of never loving him. Anna protests that she was scarcely more than a child herself when he was born.
After more warnings from his right hand man, Deema (Sergei Bodrov, Jr.), Oleg spends an eventful night. Jane, sexually unsatisfied by her invalid husband, attempts to seduce him by the tennis courts, but they are caught in the act by the wheelchair-ridden Michael. After one of the young prostitutes brought it as late night entertainment by Deema, Oleg invites her to bet against him as he tries his hand at Russian Roulette; but the gun doesn't fire. Then he loses the house, or at least appears to lose it, in a prolonged game of blackjack with Michael. Finally, as the threatening calls continue, he calls his men together to tell them that his life is in danger. For the time being, he also rescinds his appointment of Alex, whom he does not wish to place at risk, as his successor. He then sends two of his best to catch a plane for Moscow in hopes of solving his "problem" with a preemptive strike.
The following morning, as he prepares coffee, Oleg spots a cockroach scurrying across his kitchen floor. He orders Deema to call an exterminator and shortly thereafter Lisa arrives dressed in the uniform of Pacific Exterminators to eliminate his bug infestation. Oleg is immediately taken with her and proposes that she be paid extra to clean up the dishes and, if she will consent, even more to grant him a "quickie." Lisa needs the money and accepts the clean-up job but will not consent to sex for hire. Undeterred Oleg helps her wash dishes and tries to charm her into reconsidering. He leaves her when he hears a commotion outside that turns out to be a fist-fight between Alex and Deema.
As Oleg chides Deema for fighting his brother, Alex goes inside to clean up and spots Lisa coming out of Oleg's bedroom with her gear. Alex suspects that the exterminator role is a ruse, and that she has actually come to assassinate Oleg.
Lisa's screams bring Oleg, Deema, Anna, and the others to the garage where Alex is interrogating her at gunpoint. To Lisa and Anna's horror, Oleg listens to Alex's accusations and tells him to go ahead and shoot Lisa. Alex cannot bring himself to do it and runs out cursing Oleg. After Deema calls Pacific Exterminators to confirm that they have indeed sent Lisa to the house, Oleg tries to apologize. When Lisa refuses to listen, Oleg offers her a considerable sum to just stay with him. On the understanding that there will be no sex, Lisa agrees.
Oleg comes to make his peace with Anna, who has packed to leave. Alex has fled the mansion and, unknown to them, is hitching a ride down on the coast highway. Miguel, who has stood by silently during the family squabbles, now volunteers to bring in some of his guerillas and help guard Oleg against attack. Oleg accepts the offer, so Anna leaves alone. When one of the call girls gets drunk and tries her own variation of Russian Roulette, they are also escorted off the property. And, after reconciling with Jane, Michael suffers a seizure and must be taken away in an ambulance. So only Lisa, Oleg, and his various protectors remain.
Lisa and Oleg dress formally for dinner. After she has been plied with caviar and vodka, Lisa and Oleg dance alone in the fog-enshrouded patio. But the strong drink and rich food have made Lisa ill. After she collapses in a bathroom, Oleg carries her upstairs to his bed. While Lisa sleeps, Oleg watches a movie of himself as a child dancer and reminisces with Deema. Outside Oleg tries the dance steps he mastered as a child to the surprise and amusement of Miguel and his men. Then he goes up to his bedroom planning to spend the night on the sofa; Lisa awakens and voluntarily offers him a quickie.
The next morning, Oleg learns that his men have been killed at the airport and asks for Lisa's help. After she has packed up her gear and driven off, Deema goes to the bedroom and finds that Oleg is not there. He takes a car and drives after Lisa's van.
Oleg is indeed in the van with Lisa and asks her to pull over at a nearby beach. Seemingly liberated, Oleg runs to the edge of the water and skips rocks across the waves. Lisa calls him, and Oleg turns, not at all astonished to see that Lisa has a gun. Oleg asks Lisa for a coin and proposes one last wager. He'll flip the coin. If he loses, she shoots him. The coin seems to hang in the air for a long time. Finally it lands. An instant later, Oleg is dead. As she drives away, a tearful Lisa finds a note and a satchel of money which Oleg has left for her. It is enough for a new life. At the beach, Deema reaches the body and takes a ringing phone from Oleg's pocket. He confirms to the caller from Moscow that the "job is done." Then he picks up the coin in the sand and walks off.
Some time later, Michael sits alone in the back of the mansion which he now owns. Lisa, Alex, Anna-all have gone on to others things. And Oleg died as he must have wanted, a gambler to the last.
