Based on the novel by Vladimir Orlov "Salty Watermelon". About the youth team of builders laying in the taiga railway Abakan-Tayshet. In the taiga, on the site of the future route, the youth team of Nikolai Bondarenko works. The people in the brigade are very different: the educated muscovite Vitaly, the resourceful Boris, the scribe and the romantic "Bukvar", but everyone lives together. They dream of a future route that will open the way to the Sayan Mountains.

The movie consists of two novellas. "The Affair". Russian sailor Nikolai and former bullfighter Spaniard Jose-Maria are hired on a ship, doomed in advance: the owner of the ship intends to sink it during the voyage to get a large insurance. "Scorpion and cotton candy." Friends are employed as sailors on the ship "Jupiter". The revolutionary committee assigns them to deliver an underground newspaper to Odesa. Scorpion himself, who can detect any contraband, takes part in the customs inspection at the Odesa port.