The family history (1917-1941) of a hereditary steelworker who began his career before the revolution at the factory of the German industrialist Heitel.

Followed by his two sons, Chuk and Gek, an engineer-explorer heads for a geologists'camp lost in the Ural white wilderness. He plans to spend New Year's Eve there with Chuk and Gek, among his fellow-colleagues. However an undetermined incident has caused the occupiers to leave the place. When, to their amazement, the three adventurers discover the empty camp, they realize that they don't have enough food to return immediately and that they will have to join forces to survive for a few days without any outside help...