Oraz, a schoolboy from a remote Turkmen village, loves to draw. At an exhibition of children's drawings in India, his portrait of his mother wins a prize. Teacher Lebedev, who came to the village from the Ashgabat Art College, advises the boy to study.

The end of the 1920s. A young oil engineer, Ovez Emudov, arrives in the Karakum Desert to search for oil. The lack of drinking water, necessary equipment, and workers in the barren steppes, as well as the open sabotage of the trust's employees led by Mukhortov, a staunch enemy of the Soviet government, are all factors that the head of the exploration site must contend with. The film is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic.