Biopic based on the eponymous book by Anton Makarenko, whose innovative and humane treatment of prisoners made him many friends and enemies as well. Anton Makarenko, portrayed by Kirill Lavrov, is a prominent Ukrainean and Soviet writer and educator. His breakthrough ideas and his struggle for democracy in the Soviet Union meet resistance form the communist hard liners. But Anton Makarenko prevailed and organized an experimental village where convicts live and self-govern according to fundamental principles of human rights and democracy.