Ivan Brovkin on the State Farm 1959

After finishing his military service as a sergeant, Ivan Brovkin sets off with a group of friends toward the virgin lands, hoping for a new start. He returns to his native kolkhoz to find a chilly reception waiting for him: the collective farm chairman, his fiancée Lyubasha Daya Smirnova and her mother Tatyana Pelttser regard him as a traitor. The planned wedding is canceled, and Brovkin leaves for the virgin lands, carrying with him a sense of unsettled ties and deferred dreams.

On the virgin soil, Brovkin arrives at the moment the land is being plowed and joins the tractor team. The days of hard work pass with the rhythm of seasons, and winter settles in as letters home flood the village with news that everything is going fine. Through those letters, the town learns how Ivan is faring, and Lyubasha begins to dream about escaping her own confines to join him in the new land.

In spring, Brovkin earns a significant promotion and is appointed foreman of the tractor brigade, a turning point that tests his leadership and the loyalties of those around him. The harvest approaches, and with it the pull of home. He contemplates returning to his native farm to be with Lyubasha, but theDirector of the farm sees his value and pushes a plan to keep him in place, even arranging for a house to be built for the state farm’s foreman during a subbotnik. The momentum of progress accelerates as the plan takes shape and promises continuity for the team.

Meanwhile, Zakhar Silych [Mikhail Pugovkin] arrives at the sovkhoz to fetch his bride Polina [Vera Orlova], who has also left for the virgin lands. Observing the situation, he decides to stay on the virgin lands and soon celebrates a wedding with his beloved, finding his own path amid the wind and dust of the new soil.

Ivan Brovkin’s leadership is recognized with a state honor, as he is awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, a milestone that underscores his uneasy balance between duty and personal longing.

After the harvest, Zakhar Silych, his wife, and Ivan Brovkin make a brief return to their native village. In these quiet moments, Ivan marries Lyubasha, and together they set off to continue their work and life on the virgin lands, embracing a future built on shared labor and renewed promises.