Based on the novel of the same name by N.Mizgir about the collapse of a noble family.

Revolutionary melodrama based on Lev Nikulin's story "Хміль". 1917. The main character of the film - a "bourgeois intellectual" - does not sympathize with any side and avoids revolutionary events. However, as a result of a series of adventurous adventures, love intrigues and communication with the people, he goes over to the side of the proletariat.

The film is set in one of the regions of Western Ukraine in the 1920s. A poor peasant, Vasyl, openly opposes the arbitrariness of the lord's authorities. While hunting in the lord's forest, he is captured by soldiers and imprisoned in a dungeon. His beloved girl Lesia, with the help of the villagers, opens the dam, and water begins to flood the manor. Amid the commotion, Vasyl escapes from his captivity.