It is a screen adaption of the cognominal short story of Olha Kobylianska in which the struggle of the educated women with the bourgeois manners is described. Three girls from one family are very interested in the art and are going to devote a lifetime to it. But it is the beginning of the 20th century with all peculiar to that time disadvantages, and the way to the success is bestrewed with the difficulties.
A case brings together Donetsk Polytechnic Institute student Ivan Krasko, owner of a beautiful strong voice, with former singer Korobeichenko. Contrary to the will of his father, a hereditary miner, the hero refuses graduate school in Moscow and, under the guidance of a new friend, begins to seriously prepare for his first solo performance.
The seventeen-year-old Mitya Nenashkin, whom the war found far behind the lines in Siberia, had to endure and see a lot of difficult and tragic things. But the overwhelming majority of Mitya met kind, courageous people who were ready to help others and share their last. In this environment, the character of a smart, brave guy who volunteered for the front was formed.
