In the center of the film is a powerful, peculiar, talented Russian man, the largest timber merchant Yegor Bulychyov. He is experiencing a tragic discord with himself, with the world that surrounds him, with great social injustice, to which his whole life has been given. The idea of ​​the film is to determine the purpose and meaning of the existence of the human person, consider its polysyllabic and versatile connections with the world.