The plot of the film, which tends more towards a psychological drama than a sports and adventure film, is based on a mountain climbing trip, where the essence of everyone will soon manifest itself.

Kolosov, a former oil refinery technologist, is appointed director of the research institute, which has long been estranged from real production. The new director energetically takes up the task, and somehow does not pay much attention to the fact that the scientific staff of the institute, headed by Professor Serafima Shuvalova, begins to group against him.

In the focus of the film is the fate of Varvara Basova, whose painfully soulless, philistine-gray existence, devoid of ideals and moral content. Relevant today, the picture sounds like a verdict to all who are mired in vulgarity, who have exchanged life for petty pleasures, profit, empty philosophizing.

Communist Ivan Platonov is actively involved in the collectivization of his native land, even the death of his wife does not stop him. One by one, rebellions of discontented peasants break out. Platonov's propaganda work takes on a different quality, the hero takes up arms and is not afraid of death.…

The childhood of three friends, Ilya, Yacob, and Pavel, was spent in the innkeeper's house. Their three destinies are similarly unhappy. Yakob died of tuberculosis, Ilya, after robbing a merchant, committed suicide. And Pavel, who let the woman he loved join a brothel, can no longer be happy.

This lyrical film novel tells about the crew of a small tugboat, about love, friendship, humanity and purity of relationships.