The story is based on Konstantine Gamsakhurdia's novel and depicts the social and political changes taking place in Soviet Georgia in the 1930s through the line of the main characters: Tarash Emkhvari and Arzakan Zvambaya.

Instead of going to the front, where he had decided to go after his father’s death, Giga Betaneli ends up at a defence factory in Donbass. His fiancée Nana, who had not received any letters from him, believed he had died. Several years later, Betaneli returned and started working at a metallurgical plant. To his surprise, he discovered that Nana had married his new friend Tamaz. Devastated by the news, Giga realised that nothing could be changed.

Zaza Nakashidze is imprisoned for a murder he never committed. While in jail he tries to prove his innocence and with other prisoners, real murderers and thieves, dreams of freedom.

A wealthy Ossetian prince adopts a foundling and raises her as his own daughter, Fatima. As Fatima grows up, she falls in love with her stepbrother, Dzhambulat. However, when Dzhambulat goes to war and disappears, Fatima defies her father’s wishes and decides to marry a poor labourer.

Vakhtang is talented artist but family liabilities don't allow him to work seriously. His wife Eka takes advantage of husband's trip out of town and exchanges her flat for a house in a colorful old city and sets up the artist's studio.

Brave sons of Khevsureti and Kisteti fight against each to protect their homelands. But, they confront faulty domestic traditions to respect enemy’s true prowess and find themselves in conflict with own compatriots.