During World War II, earnest young Russian soldier Alyosha Skvortsov is rewarded with a short leave of absence for performing a heroic deed on the battlefield. Feeling homesick, he decides to visit his mother. Due to his kindhearted nature, however, Alyosha is repeatedly sidetracked by his efforts to help those he encounters, including a lovely girl named Shura. In his tour of a country devastated by war, he struggles to keep hope alive.

Zoo inspector Chaplygin, concerned about the death of walruses due to panic caused by airplane flights, destroys the only navigational sign and the flights stop. Having failed to understand each other on the spot, the pilot and the zoo inspector go to Moscow - and will settle their dispute in the State Arbitration.

The film tells about the life of the Soviet country in the 30s of the twentieth century, based on the feuilletons and notebooks of famous writers Ilya Ilf and Eugene Petrov…