Lena, a woman in her late twenties, loves her boyfriend, but in time comes to see that their relationship serves no useful function. What's more, she sees that her friends are for the most part empty-headed lackeys, causing her to wonder just what is the point of her life.
Moscow academician Pavel Pavlovich comes to a picturesque village on the seashore to calmly spend his vacation here. Whiling away the time for sketches, he manages to get acquainted with the local guys, the restless Grishka and the daughter of the foreman Nyuska. Together they build a stove, repair a sewing machine, and reconstruct a telephone switchboard. When Pavel Pavlovich suddenly falls ill, all the villagers take care of him. When the time comes to leave, Pavel Pavlovich understands that in this village far from the capital, he leaves a piece of his heart.
The plot is based on the construction of a highway bridge across the Volga River in Saratov. A Moscow correspondent comes to this construction site.
