Alenka Garnashka, a girl from the remote Polesie village of Zabortsy, is studying at the city's seven-year school. Her friend, Styopka Boruta, is jealous of her. A request from poor peasants for more hayfields brings a responsible land reclamation worker from the city to the People's Commissariat of Agriculture. Styopka writes the minutes of the peasant meeting. After praising him, the visitor advises the boy to enroll in the workers' faculty. After completing the seven-year school, Alenka returns home. Together they participate in the Kupala festival, where Styopka, an atheist, initiates the destruction of the "holy well" as a symbol of "religious intoxication." But the next day, under the priest's guidance, the peasants restore it. Having quarreled with his devout parents, Styopka leaves to study at the workers' faculty in Minsk. Alenka follows him and enrolls in the land reclamation department of the agricultural academy. Styopka conceives a plan to drain the swamps in his native area. He shares it with Alenka and his new friend, Semyon Galiza, a fellow workers' faculty student and poet, who support him. Another of Styopka's classmates, Shershen, has completely different interests. Taking advantage of the withdrawn and inexperienced nature of Nina Ralnitskaya, he develops a theory of "free love," seduces her, and soon abandons her. Disillusioned with her "ideal," Nina finds support among her fellow workers' faculty students. Styopka and Alenka return home for the holidays. They convene a village meeting in the reading room to explain Styopka's project to the villagers. Most of the villagers are opposed. At first, only the young people show up to work. But gradually, the enthusiasts manage to convince many. A few months later, the work successfully culminates with a joyful, festive celebration. A visiting representative of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture declares that the drainage of the swamps, initiated by Styopka, will serve as the basis for the creation of a collective farm in Zabortsy.
