The 1960s. The village of Matёra, standing on an island in the middle of the Angara, will be flooded because of the construction of the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station. Many, mostly elderly people, do not want to leave the place where they spent their entire lives. They see the flooding of the village and the resettlement as a betrayal of the memory of their ancestors buried in this land. And the younger generation believes that by moving to the city they will find a better life.