Set in the 16th century, this is a story about Ukraine's Cossack warriors and their campaign to defend their lands from the advancing Polish armies.

A ghost and a French marquis wander through the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, encountering scenes from many different periods of its history.

Having learned from his younger brother Pashka about the mysterious death of his father, Yegor returns to his native village after many years of absence. It turns out that the entire inheritance - a farm with a small number of cows and a piece of land - must go to pay off the father's debts to a local entrepreneur. Pashka is categorically against the slaughter of cows and the sale of land. A quarrel breaks out between the brothers. Yegor asks local guys to help take the cows to the neighboring village to the slaughterhouse, but Pashka is ahead of them, who, under cover of night, takes the whole herd in an unknown direction.