My Boy!

Young Maxim grows up under the czarist regime with his grandparents as guardians. Continually demeaned by his martinet grandfather, Maxim is drawn to his warm-hearted grandmother, who instills in him the willingness to pursue his writing muse.

At the collective farm’s animal-breeding station, the young naturalists lose a fox named Serebryanka, which has run away. The children ask an old hunter, Mukhtar-aga, to catch the fox with the help of a golden eagle. The hunter agrees. In the duel with the fox, however, the eagle is defeated. Mukhtar-aga is distressed: the bird is no longer fit for hunting. Then the children decide to catch a young eaglet and give it to Mukhtar-aga. Khasen and Sasha set off for the mountains…

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.