Director Lydia Bobrova pictures the bleak life in the Russian countryside by showing some events in the life of three brothers and their families. The three brothers are different in character, but all suffer from the dreariness of kolchoz life. The title is derived from a nostalgic Russian song. The wild geese have the possibility of moving on to milder climes, a possibility that Russian country people don’t have.

A music student is expeled from school because he loves jazz, a kind of music that represents the US capitalism. He hires two street musicians to form a dixie band, and goes from one city to another trying to gain fame.

Russian naval pilots risk death to help stop a American Submarine whose defective reactor threatens a nuclear meltdown.