The film tells the story of the life and customs of a Ukrainian village in the distant past. After a heavy drinking binge, the village elder, having lost track of the days, decides to drink every second day instead of every day. Angry that no one was tearing leaves off the calendar, he forbids the youth to gather in the evenings for festivities. But it id in the evening that Alyonushka and Timish's first date is to take place. The clever boys and girls decide to help the lovers and get the foreman drunk enough to make him forget about his ban.

Trofim Bessarab has been working as a house painter for all his life. He is a pensioner now and it seems that he can let himself have a rest. But idleness is not for Trofim. His nature is to be a working man and he looks for the way to apply his irrepressible energy, he possesses despite his age.

Folk comedy that tells the adventures of Ukrainian cossacks Vasyl and Andriy as they set out on a long journey to deliver a letter from their leader to the Russian empress in St. Petersburg.