In order to fulfill his father's last will, the Cossack Aljoha goes abroad to worship the Virgin Mary. The road takes him through the Ottoman Empire, where he is captured and becomes the janissary Ali. However, nothing can stop a free Cossack. Aljoha does not lose hope that he will regain his freedom, fulfill his father's will, meet love and return to his homeland.
A gripping war drama that tells the story of Maria Petrova, in whose fate, as in a mirror, the fate of the country was reflected: the daughter of a priest, who renounced her father and the faith, she serves in the NKVD. On the eve of the battle for Moscow, Maria meets the clairvoyant eldress Matrona, and soon it is Maria who is tasked to deliver to Moscow the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, located behind the front line in the occupied territory...