Georgiy Tretyakov

The childhood of three friends, Ilya, Yacob, and Pavel, was spent in the innkeeper's house. Their three destinies are similarly unhappy. Yakob died of tuberculosis, Ilya, after robbing a merchant, committed suicide. And Pavel, who let the woman he loved join a brothel, can no longer be happy.

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.

This lyrical film novel tells about the crew of a small tugboat, about love, friendship, humanity and purity of relationships.

The plot of the film, which tends more towards a psychological drama than a sports and adventure film, is based on a mountain climbing trip, where the essence of everyone will soon manifest itself.

In the focus of the film is the fate of Varvara Basova, whose painfully soulless, philistine-gray existence, devoid of ideals and moral content. Relevant today, the picture sounds like a verdict to all who are mired in vulgarity, who have exchanged life for petty pleasures, profit, empty philosophizing.