Based on the short story by A. P. Chekhov. Beggar 18-year-old beauty Anna marries a rich 52-year-old official to help her father and brothers. After the death of the mother, the father drinks, the brothers go hungry. For the sake of her relatives, she is ready for anything, even to become the wife of an elderly, rude, vulgar and hated Modest Alexeyevich.

A small vessel is caught in a storm at sea. With no fuel and no radio, Boatswain Pukhov — an amateur pigeon breeder — sends two pigeons carrying a message about the tugboat’s dire situation. One of them, named Pilot, reaches land. The crew is rescued, and Pilot is given to a schoolboy from Moscow who took part in this difficult voyage.