The main hero, the hundred-man commander Bily, returns to his home stanitsa after a difficult military campaign and has no intention of resting… We have to defend the border!
From time immemorial, the Cossacks stood guard the frontiers of the Fatherland. Border stanitsas took part in clashes with hostile highland tribes: they repelled assaults and themselves “charged through the marshes.” In constant struggle, the Cossack brotherhood was forged. Here everyone was for one another, and each was sure of a comrade’s shoulder and of a fellow soulman—knowing they wouldn’t be abandoned.