After his father's death, teenager Viktor Tsaplin was sent by his stepmother, who suspected the boy of stealing watches, to an Odessa orphanage. The guys met the new guy unfriendly, and when the teacher's antique watch was missing, Victor was considered the culprit. After enrolling in a nautical school and once going to sea with tipsy fishermen, Victor crashes a boat. He is being expelled from the college. Deciding to start a new life and in a new place, Victor leaves to work as a fireman in Kamchatka.

Maxim Perepelitsa is a cheerful, mischievous and resourceful young man from a Ukrainian village. He loves to make up stories and invent practical jokes. When he is drafted into the Russian Army, he doesn't stop his antics.