The film recounts the creation of a cooperative in a Georgian village during the years of collectivization.
Old Eristo is known throughout the Toucheti region. He owns thousands of sheep and hundreds of horses that graze in the pastures. He is also happy with his family. He has a new wife, his second, and a daughter of the same age. However, he is unaware that his wife and daughter are both in love with the young shepherd Jamroul and are eagerly awaiting his return from the city, where he has been sent with other shepherds to attend a public training course in animal husbandry. Jamroul returns, but he is no longer the obedient servant of his master. He calls on the servants and poor peasants to unite in a collective farm and introduce new progressive rules. Furious, Eristo banishes the rebel from his house.
