Twenty-year-old Lera Meshcherikova has a difficult relationship with her mother. Father, grandmother and aunt Olga love Lera, but because of their indecision and lack of will, the girl has to defend her choice on her own. Tatiana cannot accept that her daughter is marrying a guy from a poor family, Denis, and in her heart tells Lera that she is the adopted daughter of the Meshcherikovs. Lera goes to live with Denis, and gradually her life gets better.: she puts up with her father, who gets Denis a job, the guy happily accepts the news that he will soon have a child, and Tatiana has to come to terms with her daughter's marriage. But Leroux is gnawing at the thought that she must find her own mother — only then will she be able to sort herself out. If the girl had known that she would have to pay very dearly for this...

Each of the short stories is based on either one or several stories by a wonderful Russian writer. The heroes are ordinary people “of the people”, contemporaries of Shukshin, all of whose life’s ups and downs are inextricably linked with their country - the Soviet Union of the 60s-70s. The main thing that unites both the works themselves and the films made is a whole gallery of the brightest images and characters, a story about such different destinies and differently meaningful lives, a story in the center of which is invariably Man, with his love, quests, weaknesses and victories.