Two young people are forced to spend three days together...

Avdey, the husband of the tractor forewoman Fedosya leaves her for another woman. Their 18-year-old son Filipp can not forgive his father and on the day of the new wedding even tries to run over a tractor car in which the father is driving with a new wife. Shortly after the wedding, Avdey realizes that he made a fatal mistake and is trying to return to Fedosya, but she cannot forgive. Filipp was taken into the army, on the border where Filipp serves, an armed violation of the border occurs, during which he dies.

The film unfolds on two parallel planes. Scenes depicting the tense, uneasy routine of the border where the young protagonist Ata serves are interwoven with the less dangerous, yet still emotionally charged episodes from the life of the beautiful young Leila, his fiancée, who remains faithful to him despite receiving a proposal from a very successful young graduate student.

The hero of the film is an ordinary driver of a Moscow taxi, a kind and decent man. Each new working day promises him new meetings, acquaintances — sometimes joyful and pleasant, and sometimes demanding from him severe determination and courage.

The movie is based on the the same name novel of the Nobel Prize In Literature Winner Mikhail Sholokhov. The action is taken place in 20-30-s years of the XX century in the Russian countryside going through an uneasy process of collectivization.

On the outskirts of the provincial town, Yevdokim and Yevdokiya live, raising foster children. Yevdokim works at a factory, Yevdokiya is a housewife. The family seems to be safe and happy: the only trouble is that Yevdokiya cannot forget the love of her youth. This Yevdokim cannot stand and offers Yevdokiya freedom, while he will remain with the children. But all these contradictions are drowned in mutual love for children and for each other.