For a long ruble, Fedor Buryanov came to a remote settlement—an enterprising, firmly grounded man. As a forester in a protected forest massif, he built himself a house out of state forest timber and set up a family life.
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Buryanov’s wife’s sister, Kharitina, is married to Yegor Polushkin, who went after the relative. Yegor is a carpenter with golden hands, but he is hopeless and simple-hearted. The people around him laugh at him; Kharitina complains about fate, and their son Kolka, naive and kind, loves his father, yet constantly feels shame and resentment because of him.
Yegor can’t hold on to any job, but his life changes abruptly when Yuri Petrovich, a forester who came to bring order to the forest massif, discovers embezzlement and appoints Polushkin as the new forester. Yegor zealously protects the forest—and as a result dies at the hands of poachers.