Zina is sixteen. She is a manipulative schoolgirl living in a small Russian town among sincere and simple people. Zina is nice on the surface, but so unable to enjoy normal life, that she is desperately trying to hurt someone. She tries to seduce and compromise a handsome young man, but he is smart enough to see through her and escapes from her trap. Zina manipulates her classmates so she looks like a victim. Now Zina's teacher, Vera, a sweet and loving lady, takes care of her trying to save the troubled girl, but in return, Zina becomes extremely crafty to hurt the teacher.

Vera Kasatkina, in her youth, experienced an emotional trauma: her husband left her and their child. She is 27 years old and has long given up on the idea of personal happiness. When she meets Volodya Chizhov, who is younger than her, she sincerely offers to help him prepare for his university entrance exams. Deep feelings begin to develop between them. Vera's mother is adamantly against this relationship, and Vera's colleagues have already figured it out and are making fun of her. Volodya, an open and persistent young man, tactfully takes the initiative — he helps Vera overcome her fears and find happiness.

The court undeservedly passes a harsh sentence on a young worker Volodya Kharlamov. His girlfriend Valya, whom Volodya once saved from hooligans, and the people's assessor Mitrokhin actively insist on a review of the case. In the end, they are joined by others who knew Kharlamov well, but who were significantly hindered by simple human qualities - fear, selfishness and indifference.

A large-format movie about the life of the scientist and breeder Academician I.P.Lugovenko. Academician-breeder Lugovenko created a variety of wheat, which is not afraid of the vagaries of nature and gives high yields. The academician recalls his life, how he came here as a young man and stayed forever, how a young trainee became his wife, how their son was killed by an enemy shell. His friends and comrades-in-arms did not leave him in a difficult moment, and now, at the moment of his victory, they are also by his side.

The Russian Kostya and the Bulgarian Petko work at two different sites of a gas pipeline spanning the whole length of the Soviet Union. Just of a few kilometers and there will be ribbon cutting, awards and bonuses. However, it is a fertile Russian land. The two brigadier friends go around all instances, they ask and plea. For "rebelling activities", the brigadiers are criticized. A new inquiry is submitted to Moscow. The reply is slow. Then the workers decide to change the terrain on their responsibility. The last welding is complete. The managers come, so does decision for a change in the design.

Sergeant Nikolai Gorovoy returns to his native village after serving in the Army and, overcoming all sorts of difficulties, raises the collective farm amateur art organization to a proper height. His intentions, persistence and enviable patience were not in vain: when the TV group "Hello, we are looking for talents" came to the village, a bright musical spectacle unfolded in front of the TV cameras.

About the 1930s—the early years of the Stakhanovite movement. The heroes of the film are steelworkers, who were among the first participants in the socialist competition.

The script about loneliness, conformity and the impossibility of creative realization scared the editorial censorship at the studio, and then at Derzhkino. A lot of claims were made against him. The demands for amendments and endless additions and rewrites by the authors lasted for about a year. The original version of the title "Na pokhony!" ("To bow down!") was replaced by "To Dream and to Live". According to Pylyp Ilyenko, the director's eldest son, this name appeared "as a result of censor pressure." Censorship stopped the tape 40 times: at the stage of the literary script, director's, during film tests (the actors were not approved), filming, etc. The film catastrophically fell apart into fragments, into masterfully filmed, but unrelated scenes. The director called the finished version a "dead film".

Five sad and funny romantic stories about love...

A life of a countryside woman Virineya during the October Revolution in Russia in 1917.