Andrei Vysotina, who has just graduated from the Naval Academy, is appointed commander of the ship Derzhavny. The hero challenges the commander of another ship in the Black Sea Fleet, whose wife he was once in love with...

The evil wizard Black Whirlwind steals the herd of a shepherd boy named Andriesh along with his faithful dog Lupar. Andriesh sets off to rescue them. On the way, he receives a magical flute as a gift, which helps him find his way to the wizard's castle — and comes to the aid of Black Whirlwind's numerous victims, who have long suffered from the tyrant's misdeeds. Based on a Moldovan fairy tale by Emilian Bukov.

The young composer Mikhail Glinka performs his new work at a soiree at earl Vielgorsky's house. However, the public is accustomed to Western music, and reacts coldly to the creation of the composer. This makes him very sad, but soon he decides to go learn the art of music in Italy. After returning from Italy, he is full of desire to write national Russian opera. Vasily Zhukovsky proposes a subject: a feat of Ivan Susanin. Tsar Nicholas I change the name of the opera to A Life for the Tsar and assigns a librettist - Baron Rosen. Acquaintance with the future co-author shocked Glinka: Rosen speaks Russian with a noticeable German accent. The premiere was successful, but Glinka was still not entirely happy with the libretto: "False words were written by Rosen". When Nicholas I learned that Ruslan and Lyudmila was written on Pushkin's subject, he sees it as sedition. The bitter experience of the composer brighten his supporters.

In 1942, local teenagers are organizing the underground resistance in the city of Krasnodon during the Nazi occupation of Russia. The teens manage to outsmart the Nazis in their fight, and their activity lifts the spirits of the surviving citizens.