Mikhail Buzylyov-Kretso

Aboard a ship early in the 20th-century, a middle-aged Italian tells his story of love to a Russian.

This colourful, music-filled and sensual melodrama based on early stories by Maxim Gorky tells the fatal love story between the beautiful and rebellious girl Rada and the handsome horse thief Zobar. The story is set in early 20th century Bessarabia, now part of Moldova, then belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Pavel's mother hates his fiancee. When Pavel serves in the Army she writes him that Nastya is no longer faithful to him. Pavel decides not to return to his native town. But many years later he returns to his fathers funeral and finds out that Nastya died sometime ago. She left three kids orphans and her elder daughter is also a daughter of Pavel.

For more than six months, Budulay, who had been brutally beaten by gangsters, had no memory. A chance encounter with his son Vanya, who had learned from his mother that his real father was Budulay, restored the boy's memory.