University students Vanya Volkov and Misha Rubets, while walking near Leningrad, near the Finnish border, got carried away by a dispute about the existence of a hundred-year-old birch stump and, getting lost, ended up in Finland. Suspected of espionage, they were arrested and sent to Helsingfors prison. Chance helped them escape. In the taxi they found the wallet and passport of American world traveler Triggs. Using the find, Volkov, Triggs and Misha Rubets, his wife, fly to Stockholm. A number of circumstances force them to fly further - to Hamburg, from where the fugitives decide to return to Leningrad “by the Western route”, i.e. around the world. They cannot travel to America via England using Triggs’ passport. You have to choose a different route.