Shot during the latter part of Khrushchev's Thaw, this film affirms a discrete, nationalistic Kazakh culture within the Soviet Union. "An old man decides to find the body of his son, a Kazakh soldier who died fighting somewhere in Russia, to bury him in the land of his ancestors. Travelling across the land with his grandson, they discover the harsh reality of war. And when they finally find the coveted grave, they realise that many brothers-in-arms are buried with the soldier. Every inch of the great homeland becomes the land of our fathers, the land of the ancestors..."