The film is composed of three short stories:", "", "
Brother (Братка) tells the story of a peasant visiting his brother in a sanatorium in the city. But the brother the hero was looking forward to seeing has become, in another setting, another man. The two brothers can no longer understand each other, and the peasant suddenly decides to interrupt his visit to return to his village. Fateful Gunshot (Роковой выстрел) features a mythomaniac. A kolkhoz farmer who serves as a guide to duck hunting enthusiasts tells all his guests a completely fabricated story in which he claims to be the hero: thanks to his resemblance to a German officer, he allegedly entered Hitler's bunker in 1943, shot at him, and missed his target.
In Reflections (Думы) an old kolkhoz chairman, suffering from insomnia, takes stock of his life. He relives in his imagination the sudden death of his brother, when they were still children, he sees his wife, now deceased, when she was young and he was in love. He imagines his own funeral, with serenity. He does not fear death, having lived uprightly, surrounded by the esteem of all.
