The setting is the east shore of the Caspian Sea (today's Turkmenistan) where the Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov has been fighting the Civil War in Russian Asia for a number of years. After being hospitalised and then demobbed, he sets off home to join his wife, only to be caught up in a desert fight between a Red Army cavalry unit and Basmachi guerrillas. The cavalry unit commander, Rahimov, "convinces" Sukhov to help, temporarily, with the protection of abandoned women of the Basmachi guerrilla leader Abdullah's harem. Leaving a young Red Army soldier, Petrukha, to assist Sukhov with the task, Rahimov and his cavalry unit set out to pursue fleeing Abdullah.Sukhov and women from Abdullah's harem return to a nearby shore town. Soon, looking for a seaway across the border, Abdullah and his gang come to the same town...
인쇄소에서 일하는 레나와 과학자인 볼라댜는 결혼을 약속한 삽십 대의 젊은 커플이다. 두 사람은 북적이는 대도시에서 활기찬 시간을 보내고 친구, 동료들과 즐거운 대화를 나눈다. 하지만 대화를 나누는 사람들의 표정 속에서, 또는 빠르게 스쳐가는 도시 풍경 속에서 문득 텅 빈 것 같은 순간들이 찾아온다.
