Caress childhood, parents’ love, cozy home – Aleksandra Ermolenko (Anna Mikhailovskaia) instantly loses them all, when her parents unexpectedly die in a car accident. The nearest relatives from a village – uncle Nikolai (Leonid Gromov) and his wife Katerina (Margarita Shubina) - take custody of the little Sasha; Katerina hopes to line her pockets at the expense of the inheritance of the orphaned niece. However, her plans are not destined to be realized – soon, the bank takes away all Ermolenkos’ property in repayment of loans. Katerina and Nikolai will have to return to the village together with Sasha.
To please the ill-natured aunt, Aleksandra has to take up the hardest chores. She dreams of breaking away from her custodians’ house and to enter an art college. One day she gets that chance – though, Sasha hoped for something different.
Hers is not the career of an artist, but the seas, long sails… and bitter commotions. To avoid shame and provide future for her child, Aleksandra has to marry a man she hates – the ship captain Leonid Verkhovtsev (Aleksandr Ratnikov).
Only a courageous and determined woman is able to turn the forced marriage, full of hostility and alienation, into a happy family. It is what Aleksandra will have to become.