The writer Bektas-agha, arriving in his native village, remembers his childhood: his mother died early, his careless father, who married the beautiful Kulimbala, the teacher Sagatbai. It was a time of collectivization. Bai and his henchmen, playing on the feelings of people expecting hunger, persuaded the collective farmers to barytma — stealing the herd from the neighbors. The members of the cell offered to punish all the perpetrators, but they made up the majority of the residents of the village. The teacher convinced that it is impossible to punish the people for their darkness, it is necessary to find the instigators. So, overcoming their illiteracy, the resistance of the Bay bandits, the collective farmers gradually improved their lives.