Young steelworker Fyodor Shebalin raises questions with his superiors about the organization of production and puts forward a number of proposals. The naive young man is ordered to work as he should. The young man does not give up and involves the factory's youth in his experiments...

Zakhar Psaltyrev went through many ordeals in the royal fleet, where massacres and bullying of people became a custom. Only thanks to his natural intelligence and perseverance, the illiterate peasant boy managed to avoid the fate of many of his comrades, who became drunkards and lost their human dignity. Captain 1st Rank Lezvin, commander of the cruiser "Svyatoslav", himself suffocating in the difficult atmosphere of the tsarist autocracy, fatherly fell in love with his messenger for his simple Russian soul, quick-witted mind, love for the homeland and hatred of oppression. Zakhar learned a lot from Lezvin, but soon they had to part. Zakhar becomes an active underground Bolshevik.

For Vera — a student of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, first love instead of joy and happiness brings disappointment — and it was enough to have one first deception, and before a self-confident girl changes, becomes suspicious and closed. She no longer believes in anyone and runs away from people — having left the institute, Vera and her small daughter leave for a remote village where no one knows her. Soon she has a thin and responsive friend — a teacher at a neighboring school, Aleksei Nikolaevich...

The 1930s. Naval maneuvers are underway. On orders from the command, three submarines are to "attack" a battleship. In the heat of the "battle," a fourth periscope appears. Where did the fourth submarine come from? Is it one of ours or an enemy vessel? These questions must be answered immediately by the commander of the destroyer "Otvažny," otherwise...