The film is based on the memories of Patriarch of All Russia Alexy II about his childhood about his mother and fatherpriest about how he went to Valaam with his parents as a child about the terrible beginning of the war which cut off his childhood in an instant about the arrival of German troops in Estonia Before the eyes of an 11yearold boy there are whole strings of complex human destinies Being next to his father little Alyosha saw how sometimes it is unfair for an ordinary provincial priest sincerely from the bottom of his heart trying to help the desperate to keep hope and faith in goodness in them
