The film is set in the 1930s in the USSR. The film tells about one day of the construction of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. The heroes of the film are simple construction workers who are burning at work. Upon learning that their colleagues in Kharkov have set a record, they mobilize to break it. The entire construction site was engulfed in immense socialist competition. The teams are ready to complete the work on time at any cost. A Moscow journalist who has come to cover the scale of the great construction project is looking for the hero of his report...

Goodbye, Boys! is the coming-of-age tale of three teenagers graduating from a Communist school during World War II. It's summer, and their main goals are swimming in the Black Sea and wooing the girl all three of them love. However, they are asked to become officers in the military, and slowly their worlds begin changing forever. Their parents oppose them, they begin fearing losing each other and their families, and the military tricks and maneuvers them into joining the army instead of the navy