A film about the life and work of I.V. Kurchatov, a Soviet physicist, organizer, and leader of nuclear science and technology in the USSR, and an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The film is based on film documents and photographs taken during Kurchatov's lifetime, as well as footage of the places where Kurchatov lived, and documentaries that illustrate the main stages of the development of nuclear physics and the creation of the first cyclotrons, nuclear reactors, atomic bombs, nuclear power plants, and the Institute of Atomic Energy.