Match factory repairman Parfen Loktionov is offered to become a shift foreman. The new position, on the one hand, is associated with increased responsibility, and on the other, with less earnings (the salary is “ten” less). The mother-in-law and wife insist that Parfen, usually submissive to them, refuse the offer made to him. But this time he rebels against domestic tyranny...

A dog survives a bad master and finds a good one - a sailor from a Soviet ship.

The life story of gifted geologist Vladimir Ishutin, as seen through the eyes of his sons.

Anton Skulov, a war invalid, shot a drunk young man with a hunting rifle who climbed into his garden and ruined rare flowers that his wife, a war veteran, had grown before her death. The investigation was short-lived, the accused immediately admitted his guilt and was ready to stand trial, having already convicted himself of the murder.

The invasion of a village in Belarus by German forces sends young Florya into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha, who accompanies him back to his village. On returning home, Florya finds his family and fellow peasants massacred. His continued survival amidst the brutal debris of war becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope.

The main character is Viktor Shtrum, a talented Soviet physicist who refuses to blindly follow his "comrades" by signing false documents and becoming a tool in the hands of an all-powerful state. During the war, Shtrum’s mother, Anna Petrovna, was sent to a concentration camp, but her letters continued to arrive for many years and help him remain more moral than those around him.

Faina got married shortly before the war. She is raising her daughter on her own, remaining faithful to her husband, who was killed in the war.