Plot Summary

August 1960. Director Nikolai Berentsev is working on a large-scale science fiction film about an expedition to Venus. The construction of grandiose decorations begins in the pavilion. Berentsev himself develops models of planets and spacecraft, comes up with special devices for combined filming. He tries to imagine and visualize something that no one has ever seen — life on other planets. He believes that fantasy should run ahead of science, but faces skepticism from colleagues and the scientific community. In the end, he himself begins to doubt whether his film is needed by the audience, why these dreams of Space, when there are so many unresolved problems on Earth.