After surviving a deadly attack, a guard on the Soviet-Chinese border decides to become a monk but must continually prove along the way that he's capable of becoming the enlightened man he set out to be.
Lost in remotest part of Eastern Europe, Sam is a foreigner, searching for his biological father Lagzdins where a minor road accident leads to a chance meeting with a pig-farmer's daughter, who captures him and makes him a forced laborer on the farm.
Markuss must adapt to a new life living with his granny in the countryside. After Emīlija – a neighbor’s daughter – throws some contemptuous remarks about the boy’s father, Markuss decides to teach her a cruel lesson. This has severely negative consequences which resonate throughout the village. Forced to work the boy begins to harbor hatred towards the others in the village. The only person the boy can relate to is an old Sailor living in the nearby woods. They inspire one another and keep each other’s secrets. It is only through an accidental turn of events that Emīlija’s mother’s intended sanctions against Markuss and the boy’s reputation in the eyes of the inhabitants of the village radically change.