In the middle of the 17th century, Ukrainian peasants and Cossacks rose up to fight against the Polish gentry rule. About the events of the National Liberation War in Ukraine under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, who with a firm hand led the insurgent masses to an alliance with Russia.

A group of drunken young people severely beat the couple in love. Subsequently, Aleksandr Shchetinin died in the hospital after receiving injuries from beatings. The court, chaired by Judge Khromova, is to pronounce the death sentence on one of the four participants in the fight, who committed the fatal blow that led to death.

1919 year. There is a civil war in Siberia. Taking advantage of the complete confusion, Admiral Kolchak wants to export part of the country's gold reserves abroad. At the very last moment the Bolsheviks find out about it. They decide to intercept the train, but do not have time to properly prepare the operation... The girl Nadya, in whom the head of the train is passionately in love, can save the situation. Several kilometers of railway tracks to the border become a battlefield between white and red.

Leonid Pleshcheyev returned from the war blind. Against his will, he became a dependent. He drowns his grief in unrestrained drunkenness, thereby tormenting his wife Mariya and his teenage son Lyonka. Mariya finally decides to take her son and leave for Altai, but the boy runs away and returns to his father. So, together, they eke out a half-miserable existence until Grigoriy Shalagin, Pleshcheyev's longtime friend, returns from the army. It is he who awakens in Leonid the extinct self-esteem and pride of a soldier. Pity aside, he helps him get back to work.

1942, Polar region. The Germans are preparing to capture Murmansk. The submarine Sch-721 is considered lucky, and its captain Aleksei Strogov has the ability to extricate himself from the most difficult situations. He also develops tactics for a periscope-free torpedo attack, despite the skepticism of colleagues and management. And now, when the Happy "Pike" had to take on board the crew of another Soviet submarine, and she was on the seabed with almost no oxygen, Aleksei manages to save people and perform the operation, paying for it with his life...