The story takes place in the autumn of 1941. On a train slowly heading east, evacuated families of workers and employees from one of Moscow's factories are traveling. Gradually, fear and alienation give way to the warmth of human involvement and solidarity...

Based on the play by Nikolai Klimontovich. A television performance by the Sovremennik Theatre. Despite the outward freedom of the composition, it forms something resembling a mystery, where a person's earthly life unfolds in direct connection with Higher Powers, represented here by the elder Zosima, and with the forces of Hell.