Yakov Koreshnikov, a border guard with extensive experience, is leading an operation to detain a group of foreign agents. Back in the 20s, he participated in the liquidation of the Basmachi gang. Then he first met the traitor Abzal. During the Great Patriotic War, Koreshnikov again had to face him. The saboteurs sent to the Turkestan highway area were then destroyed, but Abzal managed to escape. And here is their last meeting...

Political farce. Soviet power is compared to a symbolic "Red Train" without a steering wheel bringing happiness to people.

About the family of the old man Achila-Buva, about his children and grandchildren living in an Uzbek village, about an old plane tree covering the saplings with its branches.

1943. WWII. Senior Sergeant Maksudov and his contact Zakirov, who were captured, manage to escape from Germany to Bulgaria. But here Zakirov ends up in prison, and Maksudov manages to escape from the chase and join the Bulgarian partisans.