Young Nadia Potapova and Alexey Zotov live in a small town on the beach and selflessly love each other. But Nadezhda's father, the Director of the fish farm, is against their relationship - he reads the only and dearly adored daughter of a wealthier groom. He believes that a simple fisherman can't give his daughter what she deserves. Unlike Verbitsky, a prominent leader and partner of Potapov, who just hints that he is not averse to getting married. Having judged so, the father trickily passes off the daughter for the unloved, and Alexey goes to sea in search of happiness.