The rebel leader Jose Real is allowed to leave prison for one day to visit his family. But it is a ruse to make him reveal the whereabouts of his rebel gang. This existential drama disguised as a saga about the proletarian struggle presents a lonely and insecure individual who is challenged to act more heroically than he is prepared to, but who constantly questions his confidence and loyalties.

The cursed legacy for the young state are drunkards and truants, who have not yet rebuilt their lives in the new social conditions. But life is changing: the inhabitants of the commune dormitory, a huge, cubist-style house, “orderly” run in the morning for exercise, eat in the canteen, which resembles a factory conveyor belt.

Khokhlova, a girl-reporter on a Moscow newpaper, falls in love with factory manager Petrovsky. To her he's the epitome of manliness--virile, decisive, strong-minded. Conversely, she rejects the sensitive, diffident editor Vasilchikov, who's in love with her, as unmanly. Her infatuation affects her work, and she is fired.

At the school where worker Nikolai Zhikharev studied, students were given a lot of theoretical information, but how to work with machinery was not explained. Therefore, on one of the first working days at the plant Zhikharev made a serious mistake - he let steam out of the boiler. He was transferred to the clerk's office, but even there difficulties awaited the hero. However, Zhikharev did not give up. He decided to change the educational process in schools so that trained and prepared workers would come to the factories.