This film is set against the background of the introduction of collective farming in the U.S.S.R. in the 1930's. A young peasant, Fedor, who has been given a farm by the government, abducts a girl from the village. She is in love with a young communist, Ivan, but when the villagers come to arrest Fedor for the abduction, she protects him by saying that they are married. Shortly afterwards, she does marry him; they settle down and she learns to love him.

They live on their farm, some distance from the village. They work in the fields and bathe in the river. The man is completely happy, especially when she becomes pregnant. But new problems arise: government policy changes and all farms are to be coiiectivised. The girl's former lover is now the Communist leader in the village, and an inevitable clash approaches. Ivan wants to revenge himself on the man who took his girl away by force, and who does not want to give up the ownership of the farm in which he has invested so much work.