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 film covers the period from 1903 to the mid-1920s. In the center of the epic narrative is the story of the difficult love of the poor Berda and the daughter of the shepherd Uzuk, who will be freed and made happy by the revolution.