The movie takes place in the late 1930s in the Far East. A group of pioneering surveyors led by Kirill Kostomarov is to lay the route of a railroad through remote taiga areas. To avoid unnecessary expenditure of human labor, Kostomarov proposes his own variant of laying - along the rocks, not along the floodplain of the river, as approved by the project assignment.

The movie takes place in the late 1930s in the Far East. A group of pioneering surveyors led by Kirill Kostomarov is to lay the route of a railroad through remote taiga areas. To avoid unnecessary expenditure of human labor, Kostomarov proposes his own variant of laying - along the rocks, not along the floodplain of the river, as approved by the project assignment.