Zakhar Psaltyrev went through many ordeals in the royal fleet, where massacres and bullying of people became a custom. Only thanks to his natural intelligence and perseverance, the illiterate peasant boy managed to avoid the fate of many of his comrades, who became drunkards and lost their human dignity. Captain 1st Rank Lezvin, commander of the cruiser "Svyatoslav", himself suffocating in the difficult atmosphere of the tsarist autocracy, fatherly fell in love with his messenger for his simple Russian soul, quick-witted mind, love for the homeland and hatred of oppression. Zakhar learned a lot from Lezvin, but soon they had to part. Zakhar becomes an active underground Bolshevik.

For Vera — a student of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, first love instead of joy and happiness brings disappointment — and it was enough to have one first deception, and before a self-confident girl changes, becomes suspicious and closed. She no longer believes in anyone and runs away from people — having left the institute, Vera and her small daughter leave for a remote village where no one knows her. Soon she has a thin and responsive friend — a teacher at a neighboring school, Aleksei Nikolaevich...