A teenage soldier in World War I—a simple village boy with a naive youthful dream of fame and medals—throws himself into the unknown and goes blind in the first battle, thus taking on a new job: intercepting enemy planes by listening to the air through huge metal funnels.

A young man was born in a small Russian city, but now lives in the Caucasus, in a foreign culture. He works as a mountain guide and enjoys life, but remains a stranger among the people he lives with. He will have to leave his carelessness behind and grow up.