The film is devoted to the Pugachev rebellion and its alternative names include Pugachyovshchina (Russian: Пугачёвщина), Flames on Volga and Revolt in Kazan.

Orthodox monks, accompanied by soldiers, arrive with the intent to forcibly baptize the local Muslim population.

The villagers resist, but the soldiers carry out a punitive action, killing the wife of the peasant Bulat and kidnapping his son Asfan.

He is given command of a punitive force tasked with suppressing the uprising in his native village of Chibilne, where his father and brother are part of the rebellion.

It is known that after the premiere in Germany one White émigré Antonov-Ivanov attempted to burn a copy of the film in the "Concordia" cinema as a sign of protest against "Bolshevik Propaganda".