This large historical production was staged simultaneously with A. Khanzhonkov's painting "The Accession of the House of Romanov", but it was carried out on a larger scale; It ends with documentary footage of the coronation of Nicholas II.

The story of Prince Stepán Kasátsky discovering his fiancée was the mistress of the Czar, so he then becomes a monk.

Life is short and full of oppression, but that doesn't mean Parasha can't find love and laughter when she leaves her country home to take a job as a maid in the overcrowded, overworked, and underpaid world in the big city.

Jacob, a farmer, returns from the war to his wife Marie and begs the landlord baron for a plot of land to rent. The Baron grants the request, but only for a barren, rocky, useless acreage. The pair struggle to make do on this land, but then the Baron demands that Maria leave her husband to serve as wet nurse to his married daughter Anya's new baby, on threat of eviction. While nursing the daughter's baby, Maria receives unwelcome attentions from the daughter's husband, and a scandal erupts, ruining Maria in her husband's eyes. When she escapes from her employers and seeks to return home, the police give her the yellow passport signifying a prostitute, further degrading her. She approaches home, unsure of the reception that awaits her.

Biography of a village boy who got into the city. Having settled down as a sex worker in a tavern, the hero falls in love with a dressmaker - and leaves her as soon as she becomes a mother. Then he meets with the owner of the tavern, robs her and after a series of revels goes to prison. Meanwhile, a woman abandoned by him decides to commit suicide. She is saved from death by a switchman, who soon marries her. Here, after a few years, the hero who returned from hard labor ends up and, for the sake of the happiness of his own daughter, decides to leave the owners of this quiet monastery alone.

About life and customs in the boyar environment during the reign of Peter I.