Budu’laya won’t let his gypsy soul rest. It constantly tugs him toward the wide steppes stretching along the banks of the Don. Here his tribesmen still roam in nomad camps; free Cossack herds roam; and the bitter wormwood wind whistles. The fates of Budulay and the Cossack woman Klavdiya can’t come together, even though their hearts have long found each other. And all around, life is noisy—with its bitter grief and riotous fun, quiet family happiness and cruel separation, enmity and love.