In 1916, in the Siberian city of Verkhneudinsk, a young man Kuzma Malov entered the service as a bailiff. It would seem that that’s it, he grabbed fate “by the tail”, live and be happy, but... Kuzma loves the Tatar Madina and is eager to marry her, but the girl’s guardian, the merchant Khalilov, does his best to prevent the marriage. He covers up his reluctance by the fact that the young people belong to different religions, but, as it turned out, that is not the case at all. It’s all because of the merchant’s terrible secret, thanks to which the girl cannot be anyone’s wife at all!..