Two young men, Aleksey Vasilyev and Pavel Prokhorov, return to their native town after service in Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Aleksey finds out that his bride Nastya became a victim of rape. The rapist is the driver and trusted person of high rank official who uses his position to close the case.

The movie takes us back to the times of the Civil War, when the young Soviet power was defended by the first heroes of this terrible internecine war. Red commanders Semyon Budyonny and Kliment Voroshilov managed to gather an entire army of "red cavalrymen" - thus began the history of the campaigns "through valleys and up hills" of the legendary First Cavalry Army.