The happy days of the first love of eighth graders dimmed when they learned that Nadina's mother and Serezha's recently widowed father were going to live together. The youthful maximalism of adolescents hurts parents.

Georgy, who unsuccessfully tried to enter the conservatory twice and was left without family support, ran away from a prestigious job, not knowing how to live, and soon received a draft notice for the army.

The film is dedicated to the heroines of Ostrovsky’s plays—wives, cooks, actresses, matchmakers. For the most part, these are composite characters, but many of them have real-life prototypes. The author was a keen observer and recorded everything interesting in his diary. This is how the gallery of images from his native Zamoskvorechye, where Ostrovsky was born, came into being. Later, after traveling along the Volga, portraits of residents from small towns along the river were added. Alexander Nikolaevich never overlooked the details. When the playwright described daily life, the details of clothing, or the manner of speaking of a character, the hero would literally come to life.

On the uniqueness and significance of I.S. Turgenev's theater, and the connection between his dramaturgy and prose.