Fedya Yatsevich is going to a holiday home, his wife Lara - on a business trip to Zaraysk, for the whole summer. Their large apartment remains empty. At the same time, a friend of Larisa, Alesia, whom Lara persuadedto live in their apartment, was sent to the city from Zaraysk to the amateur olympiad. Fedya meets an old friend Ryhor Shemet and also allows him to live in his room, not knowing that Lara did the same with her friend. Living under the same roof, Alesya and Rygor begin to feel sympathy for each other...

The 1890s. One of the cities on the Volga River. The young wife of a merchant falls in love with Artem, a “Volga bogatyr,” a man of enormous strength and violent temper. She dreams of leaving with him for the countryside. Her jealous husband bribes hooligans to kill Artem.

During the 1920s, many impoverished Jews searching for a better life made their way to Birobidzhan, the Soviet Jewish Autonomous Region on the Chinese border. This melodrama tells the story of a Jewish family's immigration to Birobidzhan and their experiences as settlers on a collective farm in the area.