Vyacheslav Sirin

The film is set at one of the remote outposts along the southern border, where a rather strange case is being investigated: border guard Ashot Terzyan killed a dog on foreign territory. In the course of explaining his perfectly justified action (Ashot was saving a boy from the dog), the young border guard made it clear to his superiors that a border crossing was being prepared on the other side. However, he did not present any concrete arguments or justifications. The border violation was detected a few days later. And soon after, Ashot himself noticed a man at the railway station whom he had clearly seen on the other side during the ill‑fated incident with the dog.

Zakhar Psaltyrev went through many ordeals in the royal fleet, where massacres and bullying of people became a custom. Only thanks to his natural intelligence and perseverance, the illiterate peasant boy managed to avoid the fate of many of his comrades, who became drunkards and lost their human dignity. Captain 1st Rank Lezvin, commander of the cruiser "Svyatoslav", himself suffocating in the difficult atmosphere of the tsarist autocracy, fatherly fell in love with his messenger for his simple Russian soul, quick-witted mind, love for the homeland and hatred of oppression. Zakhar learned a lot from Lezvin, but soon they had to part. Zakhar becomes an active underground Bolshevik.