About the life of Soviet students. A group of students-graduates of a medical institute organizes a farewell party. The secretary of the regional Komsomol committee unexpectedly appears and starts openly agitating sexual promiscuity. The party turns into an ugly drunkenness.

Russian Empire, 19th century. Poor Nykanor leaves his village and becomes a miner in the Donbas. His son Ostap also becomes a miner and works in the mine for thirty years, but after his father's sudden dismissal, he realizes that the state system needs radical changes.