Crimea, 1919. The White Guards are preparing a trial of the revolutionary Antonina Chumak. Sailor Kuskov, Cossack Dmitry Chumak and card cheater Fedor Chumar arrive in the city to save her.

1722. Peter I issues an edict, stating that everyone who finds in Russian lands mineral wealth, and provide its precise map will be generously remunerated and will rid him/herself of serfdom. This decree works up the whole Russia. Serfs and all kinds of prospectors rush to Siberia to earn freedom. So does a serf Michael Volkov, but cant find anything. Especially he wishes to find a golden mountain, which, by all accounts, contains the wealthiest entrails of combustible stone - bituminous coal. His road leads him to one German geologist, whom tsar hired to research Siberias natural resources. And Michaels dream starts coming true. But he doesnt know, that his small detachment got a spy in the face of a local money-bags. As soon as he finds minerals, he will have to kill Mikhail

Kariev cannot defend his PhD thesis because he does not have the necessary theoretical basis for his idea. Young geologists - Kurov, Mukhamedov and Saraev, who worked in the geological party under the leadership of Kariev, help him, showing the ability to solve major scientific problems.