The young protagonist of the film is in love with an older woman with children, and this further complicates his already tense relationship with his family and friends. Swimming against the current is accompanied by many difficulties, and this woman is the only solace for Temo.

A group of people who happen to be on the same bus try to get home on the New Year's Eve, but their bus is delayed by numerous obstacles, and the tensions grow.

Wandering minstrel Ashik Kerib falls in love with a rich merchant's daughter, but is spurned by her father and forced to roam the world for a thousand and one nights. Now presumed dead by those he loves, he performs for the poor and unfortunate on his journeys through the wilderness. Parajanov's visually ravishing 'tableaux vivants' tell Lermontov's romantic tale while Turkish and Azerbaijani folk songs transport us into its mystical landscapes.