Oleg Bondarev

Left an orphan, Natasha comes to work at the shoe factory where her mother worked. Here she makes friends, faces her first difficulties and meets her future husband, Andrei Burov, the editor of the factory newspaper. Having organized an experimental workshop, Natasha soon became the leader of the factory. But not everything is going well in the family. Obsessed with the idea of writing a book, Andrei leaves for Siberia.

In Pavel Olevantsev’s family suddenly comes news that his daughter by another woman was orphaned. Pavel did not know about the existence of the girl, nor could his wife know about it... It is not easy to decide to take the child to his house. But it will be much more difficult to endear the girl to them, to return her the joy of childhood and the belief that she is not alone...

The mannequin model Nelly endures the usual hardships of fate: half-love, half-motherhood, half-life. Fate sets a trap for her, and Nelly is forced to make a firm and unequivocal decision.

Kolosov, a former oil refinery technologist, is appointed director of the research institute, which has long been estranged from real production. The new director energetically takes up the task, and somehow does not pay much attention to the fact that the scientific staff of the institute, headed by Professor Serafima Shuvalova, begins to group against him.

Mary and Ivan are working on a diamond factory. The wedding day is already set. But Ivan has a secret: during his stay in prison, the leader of the gang gave him a bag of diamonds for safekeeping. Return the "stones" factory — means to Express itself as a partner in crime, throw — sorry, but left for Mary — to destroy love. Soon the "friend" made itself felt and demanded to repay the debt…

Arriving in Moscow, the young, energetic provincial woman quickly joins the circle of booksellers. Having charmed her boss, Svetik got a job in the antiquarian literature department. But soon she herself fell in love, and the gullible bibliomaniac becomes the master of her unspent energy.

The WWII. Berestova, an air regiment engineer, meets Ardatov, a fighter pilot whose wife has died. Now he must think about how to raise his two children alone. However, Arbatov does not live to see victory. After the war Berestova finds his children and adopts them.

Three novellas based on M. Sholokhov's early stories about the first years of the formation of Soviet power on the Don. (1) “Koloverť”. Two Cossack brothers and their elderly father fight for the Bolsheviks, but when only Ignat and his father return to their White-held stanitsa, their third brother betrays them, sealing their fate by handing them over for execution. (2) “Chervotočina”. Idealistic Stepan joins the Komsomol against his wealthy Cossack family’s wishes, but when two oxen he lends to a poor neighbor vanish, his enraged father and brother beat both Stepan and the neighbor to death. (3) “Prodkomissar”. Commissar Ignat Bodiagin is charged with requisitioning grain for the Red Army, only to find his own father condemned for hoarding; he must preside over his execution and soon dies himself leading the resisting Cossacks away from the grain convoy.