The life of a great 19th century Russian composer and conductor of choral music.

A band of young musicians is looking for fees across the steppe in an ramshackle old bus. During their tour, starving, they kill a cow but they don't know what to do with it. They will also bring happiness in an old people's home in return for food.

The story of a player who entered the environment of professional gamblers in the hope of breaking a big jackpot.

Young Sasha is brought into a state-run children's home because his mother died early and his father spends most of his life in prison. The conditions are like in a penal institution. Sasha tries several times to escape and to search for his father.