Zhaukhaz leaves her father's house, as custom dictates and her stepmother wishes. Zhaukhaz does not love her future husband, but she does not dare to break the old custom. Zhaukhaz, along with her husband and his parents, lives in a remote high-altitude pasture. The entire family tends a flock of collective farm sheep. The daily life of the shepherd's family is harsh, and the work is monotonous: cleaning the kennels, feeding the sheep, and, on sunny and quiet days, taking them out for grazing. The winter house is surrounded by silence. Sometimes it seems scary. On one of those days, when she fell in love with a young machine operator from Tanabay's neighboring brigade, Zhauhaz realized how vast life was and how fragile the bonds of old customs that tied her to an unloved man were.

The first years of Soviet power. The rich Aktanbai decides to steal his flocks abroad. However, only the shepherd Malbagar knows the secret paths in the mountains. Therefore, Aktanbai, giving the orphan girl Nurzhamal to Malbagar as a wife, demands to indicate the way through the mountains for this. On the way to the border, Malbagar, heeding the requests of Nurzhamal, who did not want to be his wife, helps the girl escape from the camp of Aktanbai. Years pass. Nurzhamal, after graduating from medical school, returns to his native village...