Against the backdrop of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, a young Cossack warrior navigates love, loyalty, and survival as his world transforms during the civil war that tears his homeland apart.
Life on the Tatarsky farm flows slowly and leisurely. The young Cossack, Grishka Melekhov, falls in love with the married beauty Aksinya. His strict father, upon learning of this, forcibly marries him to another woman, Natalya Korshunova.…
Grigory is called up for active military service for four years. Panteley, who has come to see his son off, tries to persuade him to return to his legal wife, Natalya. Grigory's regiment heads to the Russian-Austrian border. Soon,…
Natalya Melekhova gives birth to twins. Aksinya's husband, Stepan, arrives home, and soon Aksinya joins him from Yagodnoye. In late October 1917, following the overthrow of the Provisional Government, power in the country passes into the…
A chance encounter with Aksinya on the river rekindles long-forgotten feelings in Grigory. After a visit home, Melekhov prepares to return to his unit, where he is to assume command of a division. In Tatarskoye, the villagers commit a…
After a short visit, Grigory is forced to leave the farmstead again. It's not easy for him to leave the dark-browed Cossack woman who holds his heart. Daria tells Natalya about her fatal illness and, wishing to atone for her sins, tells…
Grief haunts the Melekhov family—Natalya dies after attempting to get rid of her child. Soon, unwilling to live with her illness, Daria drowns herself. Grigory is tormented by doubts about himself, his future, and the reasons that…
Prokhor Zykov, returning from the front, informs Aksinya that Grigory is alive, but has defected to the Reds. Before her death, Ilyinichna blesses Dunyasha for her wedding to Koshevoy. Grigory returns to the farmstead in the winter, but…
