The plot is based on the story of a former teacher who became one of the leaders of the party leadership of Uzbekistan, involved in the "cotton business". He is accidentally killed by his own son in a shootout with assassins of party mafiosi.

Beginning of the 1920s. Jantai and the hero Mergen, residents of one of the mountain villages in Uzbekistan, set off for Moscow to order a monument to Lenin from a capital sculptor with the money collected by the people and to bring it back to their village. They are assisted in fulfilling the order by a homeless boy named Grishka, who has joined them in the capital.

The poet Habib is writing a poem about the Uzbek steppe. But his creativity is hindered by conflicts at work and at home.