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Old shepherd Serkebai seeks a second lambing from his flock, but kolkhoz chairman Aisary, citing lack of pasture and water, urges slaughtering the sheep. Defying him, Serkebai leads the flock across the Syr Darya into the Kyzyl Kum desert with several kolkhoz workers and his daughter Marzhan. After days without finding a well, Serkebai gives leadership to Kundebai and departs alone to die in the sands, followed by the sheep. Searching for her father, Marzhan meets hydrogeologists drilling an artesian well, where she falls in love with geologist Imash. The team rescues Serkebai’s group, and water bursts from the well, forming a lake to which the entire kolkhoz soon relocates.