The film tells about the life and work of Georgian music classic Zakaria Paliashvili.

The young composer Mikhail Glinka performs his new work at a soiree at earl Vielgorsky's house. However, the public is accustomed to Western music, and reacts coldly to the creation of the composer. This makes him very sad, but soon he decides to go learn the art of music in Italy. After returning from Italy, he is full of desire to write national Russian opera. Vasily Zhukovsky proposes a subject: a feat of Ivan Susanin. Tsar Nicholas I change the name of the opera to A Life for the Tsar and assigns a librettist - Baron Rosen. Acquaintance with the future co-author shocked Glinka: Rosen speaks Russian with a noticeable German accent. The premiere was successful, but Glinka was still not entirely happy with the libretto: "False words were written by Rosen". When Nicholas I learned that Ruslan and Lyudmila was written on Pushkin's subject, he sees it as sedition. The bitter experience of the composer brighten his supporters.

Military doctor Vladimir Ustimenko is a man of duty and honor, committed to the cause he serves, and one single love that he carries through his whole life: Varvara Stepanova is a whimsical girl who dreamed of becoming a great actress but eventually became a geologist. The war will cruelly interfere in the fate of the heroes and confuse their relationship even more.