Having fallen in love while still at school, they got married and now have a happy and prosperous family with a young son. One day, Stepan witnesses a robbery. Among the hooligans is a girl who tries to stop them. After subduing the men, he frees her. From then on, this unexpected love becomes a torment for him, his wife Natalia, and his young son Vasya, who tries to protect his mother from misfortune.

The film is based on the early autobiographical stories of Vasily Makarovich Shukshin. A bright, emotionally rich movie about the childhood of a boy from a distant Altai village, about his family — his sister and mother, about work, holidays, joys and troubles of ordinary Russian peasants during the Great Patriotic War...