Aboard a steamship, a priest tells his fellow passengers his life story, which he admits is the story of a great sinner.

A movie about love and betrayal. About war, about returning from war. However, the film does not reflect Platonov's important theme of epiphany. In the story, the protagonist does not just forgive his wife, but begins to realize how hard it was for her in the rear and at the same time realizes his selfishness and moral deafness. The peculiarity of the movie is that the characters speak in Platonovian constructions, which sound very unusual for ordinary speech.

The action takes place at the end of the 19th century in the Russian North, near the White Sea. Orphan Matvey is still 12 years old. His abilities are noticed by the master shipbuilder Quake and takes to his artel. While studying carpentry, Matvey saves money, dreaming of being a pilot on his own ship...

A young girl visits her family in a village and mistakenly identified by local children as a swimming champion.