The film is set in 1913 Russia during the celebrations of the Tricentennial Anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty. Rich Russian merchants are celebrating their wealth by gambling and playing poker. They are traveling aboard the luxurious cruise liner "St. Nikolai" on Volga river, oblivious to the fact that several gangs of crooks and con-artists are stealing their money in the game. Their target is the wealthiest Russian tycoon Satanovsky.

Summer, 1944. A military airbase near the very front-line. A young soviet pilot Sergey makes his first practice flight. In the course of this flight he hears a call for help on the radio from Russian pilots, having an unequal air combat with superior forces of the enemy. Sergey rushes to their rescue. His plane gets shut down, and he is taken prisoner. Soon he is taken to a special flight school, where future German aces are prepared and Russian pilots at the wheel of captured Russian aircrafts are used as living targets. Nobody wants to put up with such situation, and they prepare an escape.

A flutist in the forgotten past, at present the husband of a “big man’s” daughter and head of one of the Chief Directorate’s sections felt unwell one day: the forty-year-old man had a pain in his heart. This unpleasant incident provided an opportunity to meet a nurse named Lida. However, their stormy love affair ended, with Filimonov returning to normal life and an unloved wife.

This is a life story of three girlfriends from youth to autumn ages. Their dreams and wishes, love, disillusions...

The hypochondriac Argan wants his daughter to marry a doctor so he can save on his medical bills.

Andrey Pavlovich Buzykin, who makes a living by teaching at an institute and translating English literature, is cheating on his wife. Buzykin's main problem is that he's a kind man with a weak character. The lies he is telling his wife all the time are inconvincing, but he never has the courage to tell her the truth. His lover, Alla, is aware of his family life, but gets offended when, for example, he cannot meet her so that he doesn't come home late, or when he doesn't want to go home in a new jacket she gives him to avoid having to explain to his wife. Alla and Nina, Andrei's wife, both leave him, forgive him, and return to him at the same time, and Andrei continues with this kind of life, full of suffering and deceit. Finally, both women are so fed up with his lies that they don't believe him even when he is telling the truth...