The film tells the story of the legendary Soviet boxer Valery Popenchenko, USSR and European champion and winner of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. His life was a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs - from his childhood in Tashkent’s Suvorov Military School and service as a border guard, to his first victories and failures, and his friendship with Dynamo sports society coach Grigory Kusikyants.
The place where the great poet Pushkin crafted his works. The fascist forces occupied Mikhailovskoye. Each of the local residents “follows his own path”. Some join the partisans, some collaborate with the occupiers. Among them — Sergey. A professor of literature, Frau Shiller comes to Mikhailovskoe from Germany. The front line is getting closer, and soon an order comes from Berlin to transfer all historical values out of Mikhailovskoe. Neither the partisans, nor Sergey, who’s fallen into a relationship with Frau Shiller, can allow this to happen. Sergey decides to save the country’s heritage.