2012 was declared the Year of Russian History. For three years the authors filmed their heroes in the upper reaches of the Amur. The Russians arrived here 360 years ago. A detachment of Cossacks, commanded by Yerofei Khabarov, annexed these wild and sparsely populated territories to Russia. The descendants of the first Cossack settlers end their lives in God-forsaken villages on the eastern borders of the once mighty Russian Empire.