War, 1944. Soldier Zhenya Kolyshkin, a fragile intellectual from Arbat, sets out on New Year's Eve to collect a parcel, but stumbles upon a German dugout. He manages to escape, but guard duty is inevitable. Zhenya's predicament is brightened by Zhenechka, a communications officer in the Katyusha regiment.

On the legal and moral education of youth.

A novella about the meeting between Anfisa, a waitress from the river port, and the guy she had been waiting for her whole life.

The Red Arrow is the special train No.1 between Leningrad and Moscow. The film is set in the 1980s during perestroika in the Soviet Union. Kropotov (Lavrov) is communist CEO of a big industrial company in Leningrad. He is crafty and successful in getting a major order from the Soviet Government; building an automated assembly line. But his style of management clashes with his subordinates, talented engineers. Their potential is strangled by Kropotov's manipulative control. The government order is not accomplished and Kropotov gets fired. He is rethinking his outdated business style while on the train No.1 to Moscow.