After many years in a Soviet punishment camp Sadik returns home to his village. There he must learn that his brother, who has always been a conformist follower of the Soviet system, lives with the same conformism in post-communist Turkmenistan.

Old man Khalnazar tells the orphan Toykuli about the kidnapped Gyulkahkas-peri, who brings joy to people. The boy decides to find Gylkahkas. The trials that befell him were shared by a girl he met named... Gyulkahkas. Only at the end of his wanderings Toykuli realized that his companion was the peri he was looking for, and only kindness and love could work miracles.

The plot of the philosophical parable, the meaning of which boils down to the simple idea that "people are animals", develops in three instructive directions: the story of the shepherd waiting for death, who once did not meet his mother, who came to him from a distant village; the second story is about a young man who went to the mountains away from the worldly world, and finally, the third story is about a sheep trying to save its child from the fate that was destined for it.

KGB officer Galkanov is sent to Europe to investigate how gold coins linked to high-ranking Soviet officials are finding their way into foreign banks. As he digs deeper, the case leads him back home to Turkmenistan.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​