During an examination flight, the colonel, who was on board as an examiner, accidentally touched the wrong switch - and the machine crashed into the sea. Everyone except him survived. And now, during the investigation, pilot Nazarov, a student of the colonel, as a sign of gratitude for the pedagogical skills of a talented teacher, takes all the blame upon himself.
The film takes place in Uzbekistan during the Great Patriotic War. Pulat and Bahor love each other, but the happiness of the heroes is prevented by a rich friend of the parents of a girl who sees her as her future wife.
Success in work and rapid advancement through the ranks turned the young, capable geologist and prospector Andrei Chernogorov into a dry, selfish careerist. Simple, human relationships ceased to exist for him. Varya, Andrei’s wife, a collector by profession, having separated from her husband, leaves to look for a zirconium deposit. After some time, Andrei was sent to the same survey party. Arriving in the desert among ordinary people with their harsh, working everyday life, he begins to realize that he behaved unworthily.