Anatoly Yefremovich Novoseltsev, a clumsy single father of two sons, works at a statistical bureau. His boss is a strict unmarried woman, Ludmila Prokofievna Kalugina, nicknamed "our frump" by her subordinates. She has some self-confidence problems, hidden behind her gloomy humorless demeanor and plain old-fashioned look. Novoseltsev’s colleagues consider him as a smart and experienced worker. He dreams about promotion and a raise that would help him provide for his children, but he is too timid to talk to his boss about it. His former classmate and old friend, Yuri Grigorievich Samokhvalov, recently appointed assistant manager of the institution, suggests appointing Novoseltsev as a head of the light industry department, but Kalugina rejects it believing that Novoseltsev is not good enough for the position. Then, following Samokhvalov's advice, Novoseltsev tries, rather unwillingly, to flirt lightly with "the Frump" at a party in Samokhvalov's apartment in order to "get into contact" with her. Feeling extremely uneasy he tries in vain to make a conversation with her talking about random things such as mushrooms and poetry, shows off his singing and dancing abilities (in a very comical way), but Kalugina gets annoyed and severely criticizes all his attempts to impress her. Eventually Novoseltsev becomes frustrated, flares up and tells Kalugina right in her face that he considers her dry, inhuman and heartless. Next morning embarrassed Novoseltsev comes to her office to apologize. Kalugina starts reprimanding him but then all of a sudden bursts into tears, revealing that his yesterday accusations hurt her. Novoseltsev is impressed and touched by discovering a delicate side of his boss's personality. They have a heart-to-heart conversation in which Ludmila tells him about her lonely joyless life. From here on they start getting closer and soon fall in love with each other. It transforms both of them. For instance, Kalugina, having thrown off a "protective mask" of a hard-hearted woman, becomes more aware of her femininity and surprises everyone with her new elegant clothes and charming look.
As the relationship between Anatoly and Ludmila evolves, full of comical situations and repartees, a drama unfolds between Olga Ryzhova and Yuri Samokhvalov who were dating many years ago at a university.
Office Romance was a Soviet hit movie in 1978 having 58.4 million viewers, and still remains one of the most popular Soviet-era films in Russia and other former Soviet republics. Alisa Freindlich and Andrey Myagkov were named Best Actors of the year by readers of Soviet Screen Magazine (Sovetsky Ekran).
The film received general approval from critics; there was not one negative review of the film. High artistical level, skills and organic collaboration of director and actors were noted, as well as vivid portrayal of Moscow, comic elements in parallel with investigation of moral issues.
Members of the State Art Council nominated the leading actors for the State Prize of USSR. Alisa Freindlich was the one who didn't receive the Prize - according to the rules of that time, an actor couldn't be given a new Prize earlier than two years after getting the previous one. And Freindlich had already been awarded for her stage performance a year before the release of the film.
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