The oldest director of Lenfilm tells the story of this studio's work.

About the forestry scientist Ivan Vikhrov, who devoted his life to the forest and the fight against the fact that “forestry is turning into ordinary forest management.”

The Russian nobleman Fyodor Vasilievich Protasov cannot put up with the hypocrisy of his environment, but is powerless to fight it. He begins to drink, leaves the house and gradually falls. The behavior of Protasov helps to bring his wife Liza closer to a longtime friend of the family, Viktor Karenin. Unable to endure the lies and humiliation associated with the upcoming divorce proceedings, Fedya pretends to commit suicide and seemed to forever leave his family. It is only due to the accident that it becomes known that Fedor Protasov is alive. Liza, reconciled with the death of her husband and became the wife of Karenin, is summoned to court on charges of duality. To stop the stupid and deceitful comedy of the court and rid the shame of innocent people, Protasov shoots himself.

Based on the play of the same name by Aleksandr Ostrovsky. Two poor actors, Neschastlivtsev and Schastlivtsev, — no money, no work, no tobacco and that, having put on fake orders, armed with a pistol and a guitar, decide to visit the rich Neschastlivtsev's aunt — the landowner Gurmyzhskaya...