Aleksei Ochkin

Near the city of Verny, surrounded by Cossack patrols, the paths of three friends diverge. Instead of his native aul, Nartai finds only ruins. The death of his mother, the disappearance of his fiancée, and the oppression from the stanitsa ataman — all this forces Nartai to join the revolutionary struggle. Hunger and poverty, and pleas for bread greet the blacksmith Azim in his native Zhetysu. A Cossack horse kills Azim’s little son with a kick of its hoof when the boy reaches for scattered grains of bread. Grief turns the blacksmith into the leader of a starving, rebellious crowd. The fate of the third soldier is not easy either. Pavel Zernov, pausing only briefly at the bedside of his dying little son, hastens to rejoin his comrades who have gone underground.

An unexpected romance occurs for a female Red Army sniper and a White Army officer.

A love story of young Altynay and young Asake. Having graduated from the college, Altynay returns to his native collective farm in the Tyan-Shan highlands. Lovers are going to get married. Ashirbay, Asake’s father, is planning a wedding as soon as his son heads the collective farm. But unexpectedly, Altynay is elected as chairman. The girl, contrary to the ancient customs of the highlands, vigorously takes up business. She does a lot of good deeds within a short period of time. Everyone began to respect the young chairman. Only Ashirbay harbors a grudge. And once, when in a blizzard he overtook a flock of sheep, he decided to lead the sheep to the abyss. Asake, accompanying his father, saves the collective farm flocks of sheep, and he perishes...