This remarkable film is based on P. Bazhov’s fairy tale “The Malachite Box”. Little Danila was the most inquisitive apprentice of old Prokopich, a famous stone-carving master. Years passed… Like his teacher, the grown-up Danila has learned to feel the soul of his material and became an expert in handling rare precious stones found in the Ural Mountains. One day he met the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, a fairy who ordered for herself an unusual stone flower.

Set in a new mining town in the Donets Coal Basin, it centres on a clash between the young miners, the political establishment, and a religious cult lead by a devious Pentecostal evangelist infiltrated into the community who tries to make the workers fall under his influence.

The Kirov company dances a memorable performance of Prokfiev's "The Stone Flower," based on a fairy tale by Pavel Bazhov. When Danila (Aleksandr Gulyaev), a stone carver's apprentice, becomes an expert in shaping rare stones, the Queen of the Copper Mountain (Tatiana Terekhova) seeks him out for a special project. But his work is so exquisite that she decides to hold him captive -- and far from his beautiful bride (Anna Polikarpova).

We do not know what happened to the flowers at the bottom of the water, whether the rocks covered them or floated to the surface.

The plot of the famous post-war film tale here becomes a metaphor for the dramatic path of Russian cinema from the magnificently decorated pavilions of the "little picture" era to the living reality of the "thaw" period.