In a remote village on the seashore lives a boy nicknamed Shumilka, the village mockingbird and mischief maker. A loyal fan of circus master Leonid Yengibarov considers himself his son. But Yengibarov himself doesn’t dare write a letter and ask for advice on how to join the circus. The morals and spirit of the village, its miserable and half-drunk life make thirteen-year-old Shumilka want to take revenge by all means. And the world takes revenge on him in its own way: everyone gave up on the boy - his mother, his grandmother, and his deaf-mute grandfather. In addition, he is expelled from school because he could not restrain himself and hit the teacher with a teapot. And now the boy is threatened with a colony...