1946. Kirghizia. This is the time of poverty and hunger. A woman is evacuated from Leningrad with two children - boys of six and ten. The family is struggling for life, selling handmade rugs and picking up in the ruins of abandoned houses everything that could be used at home. One day the brothers find a book with wonderful pictures in a dump. It is Alexander Pushkin's "Goldfish". Mother reads it to them at the bedtime - and boys start to have a dream and meaning of life: to become owners of the treasured goldfish and to make three wishes, one of which, of course, would be their father's safe and sound return.