Valentina Harlamova

The first years of Soviet power. The rich Aktanbai decides to steal his flocks abroad. However, only the shepherd Malbagar knows the secret paths in the mountains. Therefore, Aktanbai, giving the orphan girl Nurzhamal to Malbagar as a wife, demands to indicate the way through the mountains for this. On the way to the border, Malbagar, heeding the requests of Nurzhamal, who did not want to be his wife, helps the girl escape from the camp of Aktanbai. Years pass. Nurzhamal, after graduating from medical school, returns to his native village...

Kazakhstan. Day and night, through scorching heat and fierce blizzards, drivers pilot their vehicles. One day, a grain convoy is caught in a snowstorm. A *Pobeda* car—carrying the artist Shaltay, his wife, and their child—accidentally finds itself in the midst of the convoy. It is here that the driver, Kemel, encounters Tana, his ex-wife. Determined to save both the people and the grain, Kemel and other brave men set out for the district center. Tana insists that Shaltay join them. Along the way, Shaltay feigns illness, forcing the drivers to turn back. The people in the convoy battle the elements; they are being searched for and are on everyone's minds.

Young Akbota goes to visit her grandmother in Alma Ata and brings her saplings of the sacred archie tree. On the way, she meets architect Murad, and then his wife, actress Sholpan...