The main characters are two graduates of a music school, gifted violinists. Andrei is ambitious, able-bodied, absorbed in the desire to achieve recognition. The other is Ladya Bragin, simple and reckless. On the day of the exam at the conservatory, he meets a girl who works as a clown, and immediately decides to stay in the circus. The creative successes of the heroes do not immediately and not simply take shape. Their will, their conviction of a calling, are severely tested. And yet both come to understand what happiness music can give and how much it demands from a musician...