Russian Empire, Nizhny Novgorod, spring 1896. The whole city is preparing for the imminent opening of the XVI All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition. Lev Aleksandrovich Bortsov, a successful and ambitious architect who does not have an academic education, serves as an assistant to the chief architect of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair and carries out private orders, one of which was the personal exhibition pavilion of his close friend and patron Savva Mimozov - a factory owner, a millionaire, the head of a friendly family. They are both invited to the Institute of Noble Maidens, where examination tests and preparations for the ball are taking place. Among the graduates are three friends: Lisa, Nina and Lida. Liza Poletaeva, spinning in the graduation waltz, does not yet know that her father is in an extremely risky financial situation, she is full of hope. Behind the walls of the IBD, joys and trials, difficulties and successes, discoveries and disappointments and, of course, her first love await her. What will her first summer of adult life be like?