Vladimir Bershanskiy

To help the starving peasants of 1918 Turkestan, the Soviet government sends a caravan with bread from Tashkent. This path is dangerous - gangs of Basmachi and White Cossacks are rampant here. The detachment commander, after a series of exhausting battles, decides to distract the gangs - and sets off on the wrong path a “false caravan” led by Commissioner Archman...

The film is based on K. Kuliev's novel "Magtymguly". A story about a Turkmen spiritual leader, philosophical poet, Sufi and traveller who wrote under the pen name Pyragy (Feraghi) and is considered to be the most famous figure in Turkmen literary history. After graduating from the Khiva Madrasa, the poet Pyragy (Feraghi) Magtymguly returns to his native Turkmen aul. He teaches children, composes poems, loves a beautiful girl and is loved by her. But local bey Cherkez-khan does not like the poet's calls to unite Turkmens, and his soldiers burn the village. Khan appoints the captured Magtymguly his court poet but, having received a refusal, the tyrant orders to kill the poet. But the guard helps the poet to escape. Having returned to the burnt aul, Magtymguly begins to call on Turkmens to unite with Russia, because they could not deal with their troubles alone.

Commissar Selivanov and several Red Army soldiers manage to escape from captivity. They are being pursued by the White Guards and Basmachi, led by a colonel who was released on parole by Selivanov.