The film tells about the complex relationship between two chemical scientists. Viktor Sviridov arrived from the province, where he works as an engineer at one of the factories, at the metropolitan institute in order to defend his project related to an urgent scientific problem. However, without the support of a longtime friend Alexei Grekov, he has no chance: most members of the academic council are opposed to his project and himself. But Grekov is also forced to choose between his wife's scientific career and obligations to another.

When a small state is threatened with capture by a much stronger one, only one thing can save it: the emergence of a competitor comparable to the invader. In a graceful and witty play by Scribe, hostilities unfold around a young officer, in whom the modest saleswoman of a jewelry store, the omnipotent Duchess of Marlborough and the Queen of England herself fell in love at the same time.

About the life and work of the poet Sergei Yesenin, his connection with his native country, its people and nature. Childhood, love, painful searches for his place in the new, revolutionary Russia — everything found a place in Yesenin's lyrics. Frames illustrating Yesenin's poetry and poems are side by side in the film with episodes of the poet's biography: the film reflects the days of his stay in America, World War I, revolution and village round dances, a daring uncle, a wise mother...