Living together in a workers' dorm, Katerina (Vera Alentova) and her friends are determined to make it in Moscow. But when a boorish cameraman (Juri Wassiliev) forces himself on her, Katerina finds herself pregnant and alone as her friends move on. Twenty years later, she's fought to become a factory director, outpacing her old roommates career-wise, but still alone but for her daughter. When she meets a genial mechanic (Aleksey Batalov), love seems possible again.