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.

The best bell-ringer of the church Fedor Kuzmich Shtukov becomes the foreman of production at the shipyard. Communists and Komsomol members are trying to persuade Fedor to forget about the church, but in vain. Daughter Anna laughs in the face of her father - and in vain too. But when the plant desperately needed a scarce metal, Shtukov, painfully thinking about his native plant, supported the proposal of one of the workers to cast the billet from the church bell, and the vessel was ready for launch on time.

The final part of trilogy about the life of a young factory worker, Maxim. Following the Russian Revolution, Maksim is appointed state commissar in charge of the national bank. With great efforts, he learns the complexies of the banking trade and begins to fight off sabotaging underlings. Dymba, now a violent enemy of the Republic, tries to rob a wine store but is arrested with Maksim's help. Maksim also exposes a conspiracy of a group of tsarist officers who prepare an attempt against Lenin. He then joins the Red Army in its fight against the German occupation.

The second part of trilogy about the life of a young factory worker, Maxim. In July 1914, the Bolsheviks and Mensehviks compete for representation of the working-class in the Duma. Maksim, who just returned from exile, calls the workers to strike as a protest against the firing of six of their colleagues. The traitor Platon Dymba assaults Maksim, wounding him severely. When the strike unfolds the workers demonstrate by the thousands, the news of the outbreak of World War I suddenly arrives. Maksim gets drafted.

The daredevil pilot Sergei Belyaev takes a risk flying a plane which is not properly maintained and crashes dangerously, landing in hospital, his plane going up in smoke. The aviation student Galya Bystrova, having a crush with Belyaev, unfortunately tends to imitate him in the air. Later, heeding the advice of the wise headmaster Rogachev, they become experienced pilots. Bystrova is assigned to Pamir, and Rogachev, in love with her, is sent to Sakhalin.

An ideologically committed Red Army soldier returns home from the war and takes up a new struggle with the aim of collectivizing the land of a wealthy peasant.

The film tells about a band of demobilized Red Army men and two civilians who cross a Middle Asian desert. They are forced to do battle with superior forces of Basmachi rebels for the dry draw-well.