The District Party Committee nominates Klimov, the headmaster of a rural school, whose main concern was to prepare students for higher education. Previously, he had not been concerned that young people were not returning. And now, from his new position, Klimov must look at the problem of educating future specialists needed by the collective farm in a different way.

Set around the Volga river, the story begins around 1900, when Russian peasants are let free and allowed to own their farmlands. But soon they suffer from losses during the 1917 Russian Revolution and the following Civil War. Then, the major national catastrophe is started by Stalin: his communist government kills millions of farmers and steals all their food supplies, causing the longest and deadliest famine all over central Russia during the 1920s and 1930s.

A movie novel about the life of the village. Having devoted his life to his native village, Mikhail Petrovich Zubov has become somewhat coarse and even embittered by the end of his chairmanship. About this honestly and openly tells him the young party leader of the collective farm. But no matter how difficult it is for the chairman to understand the fairness of criticism, his love for the land helps Zubov to change his relations with people.

The life of the inhabitants of the veterans' house was boring and monotonous. Everything changed with the arrival of the new head physician, Varvara Dmitriyevna. Her kindness and sensitivity began to work miracles. After all, Varvara Dmitriyevna tries not only to treat the ailments of the elderly, but also to return to them their lost interest in life, the belief that one can still love and be loved...

The purposeful village guy is indifferent to entertainment, but strictly follows the daily schedule, studies languages and exact sciences. There are two goals in his life - to become an astronaut and win the heart of his former classmate.

Zhenya is divorced a long time ago, raising her five-year-old son alone, working in a clinic, and part-time as an ambulance worker. She is an optimist and doesn’t complain about life, which is why her colleagues call her happy. Zhenya's unexpected meeting with a new doctor can probably change her life a lot.

The film is set during the last summer before the Great Patriotic War. Three sisters are coming to stay with their grandmother in the village. They imagine the world as a vast and charming "Garden of desires" and all members of the household are waiting for Asya's birthday. Asya has a sense of foreboding regarding the impending grief. Guests come to visit but none of them are her parents. She still does not know that her father was declared an enemy of the people, that tomorrow she will not see her mother and that the war is approaching.

An old man lives in memories of the war — of that morning on June 22, 1941, when a Nazi soldier spared his life. Many years later, he is taken from the home his son abandoned. Around him, life goes on: people fall in love, laugh, dance. But for him, the war is not over.

The action takes place at the end of the 19th century in the Russian North, near the White Sea. Orphan Matvey is still 12 years old. His abilities are noticed by the master shipbuilder Quake and takes to his artel. While studying carpentry, Matvey saves money, dreaming of being a pilot on his own ship...