The post-war years. Yakut hunter Bykadyrov discovers mysterious footprints in the taiga leading to a village where the head of a geological expedition has just been murdered. A group of state security officers arrives from Moscow to investigate the crime.
Krestan Serbin, a 64-year-old Sorbian farm-worker, considers himself non-political. He owns a few acres, a few pigs and a cow, and intends to pass all this on to his daughter Lena.
A young woman welcomes a stranger into her home who pretends to have an accident. After a fleeting romance, the two marry and she immediately inherits a fortune due to the death of her uncle.
In the Salinas Valley in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother for the love of their father.
A man embezzles some money in order to pay his debts and the daughter of his boss, who is in love with his son, asks a rich former suitor of hers for help.