The story of a young woman who, after her years at university in the city, returns to her hometown an engineer and begins work on a huge new power plant. She continues to supervise work on the plant throughout the war.
Provincial landowner Murzavetskaya, a hypocrite hiding under the mask of piety and virtue, wants to get her hands on the fortune of the rich widow Kupavina.
Raisa Gurmyzhskaya is a former beauty who is spending her widowed years in a remote province of Russia. After her friend's young son comes to visit her, she finds herself bored enough to embark on an affair.
