In the 17th century, in a Cossack village near Chyhyryn on Christmas Eve, Halya, the daughter of centurion Khoma Kychatyi, is looking for a matchmaker from a young Cossack Nazar Stodolya, whom she loves. But her father is ready to give her in marriage to a rich colonel. So, when the colonel's matchmakers come, he tries to deceive his daughter with the help of Stekha, his keywoman, in order to get her consent.

Anatoliy Trifonov returns home after army service. He meets Raya, chairman's niece, who falls in love, but life takes its own course.

Melodrama about the mass shooting of Ukrainian Jewry at Babi Yar in Kyiv during the Second World War.