Shorty after the 1917 Russian Revolution, during the New Economic Policy era, a criminal becomes a police officer through a case of mistaken identity and uses his knowledge to solve cases previously out of reach of the force.
2016, Russia, Cosmonaut Training Center. Another international crew (three Russian and two American cosmonauts), led by Commander Gennady Yashin, is preparing for launch to the ISS. During the preparation for the flight, it suddenly turns out that there is a psychological "time bomb" inside the crew, associated with serious difficulties in the family relations of the expedition participants and endangering not only the fulfillment of a mission of national importance, but also their lives.
The watchman is a joker of the garage cooperative, he is happy to tell funny stories from his life to the guests. He tells a variety of people who come to his lodge. By nature, he is such a philosopher, with an incomprehensible confusing past. He is an expert in many fields. And as the film progresses, it becomes clear that he understands art, philosophy, cinema, and is able to express his opinion effectively. And so he tells the guests different stories. And each story is a separate series, with its own beginning, culmination and denouement. And the main character unites all these stories. And an ironic attitude to all these events.
During the Second World War, a Soviet plane crashes in the territory occupied by the Germans, but the pilot Grivtsov and his beloved radio operator Katya, who were flying in it on a mission, miraculously escape. Navigator Linko also managed to survive. Each of them will now have to find their own way to complete a combat mission, return to their own and survive...
In order to fulfill his father's last will, the Cossack Aljoha goes abroad to worship the Virgin Mary. The road takes him through the Ottoman Empire, where he is captured and becomes the janissary Ali. However, nothing can stop a free Cossack. Aljoha does not lose hope that he will regain his freedom, fulfill his father's will, meet love and return to his homeland.