Dmitriy Ivaneev

Negina, a talented actress at a provincial theater, must leave the stage because her purity of behavior is incompatible with theatrical customs. She loves the student Meluzov, and both dream of an honest, hard-working life. Harsh reality destroys her plans. A natural actress, Negina is unable to leave the theater, and in order to serve art, she is forced to betray her ideals and sell herself. After agonizing doubts, the actress becomes the mistress of the wealthy landowner Velikatov and leaves with him. Meluzov, left alone, angrily denounces the depraved "admirers of talent," the masters of the city.

The post-war years. Yakut hunter Bykadyrov discovers mysterious footprints in the taiga leading to a village where the head of a geological expedition has just been murdered. A group of state security officers arrives from Moscow to investigate the crime.

A first feeling starts to develop between a boy and a girl living in the same building but her family suddenly must move.

The July days of 1917 in Petrograd. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets, including the elderly and children. They are marching with red banners, singing songs. And suddenly, machine gun fire is heard from the attic. The dead and wounded fall to the pavement. And immediately detachments of mounted Cossacks poured out of the alleys... Andreika, the son of a St. Petersburg worker, miraculously survived this altercation. But little Elena's mother was killed. That's how Andreika got a little sister. The Provisional Government issues a decree on Lenin's arrest. There are spies all over Petrograd. One of them, Ensign Kolokov, disguised as Uncle Vitya's janitor, settled not far from Andreika's house.