Two old friends living in Moscow and St. Petersburg are hoping to get their children married.

An aspiring journalist travels to his hometown after receiving a letter from a respected teacher who claims that she has been forced to retire from her job.

The famous clown Vetrov returns after a long tour to the Moscow Circus, where he worked for many years. Time has changed a lot, and past ties are not easy to restore. But he has a new program and the same goal - to make people laugh.

The young machine operator Fyodor Soloveikov marries Stesha from a neighboring village and moves to live with her parents in a house. Young and energetic, he suffocates in the petty bourgeois world of the family, living away from collective farm life. Quarrels arise between young people, where old men pour oil of discord. Not receiving proper support from his wife, Fyodor leaves home.

The action takes place in Odessa in the 1970s. Rosa, an Odessa woman, a mother and the head of the household, says goodbye to the Courtyard where her entire life unfolded, because her sons have decided to emigrate to Israel and take the elderly parents — her mother and father — with them. A staunch patriot and war veteran, Semen Margolin is ready to curse his children for such a betrayal, but with the help of his mother Rosa, he is somehow persuaded to make the move.