1959 год. Молодой ленинградский инженер отправляется в Египет на стройку Асуанской плотины. Здесь, в Асуане, он рискнет жизнью ради великой стройки - а потом на ней же потеряет друга и поставит перед собой вопрос: что важнее - великое дело или человеческая жизнь? When the whole USSR had been electrified, Soviet Hydroelectric powerstations, or HEPS, began to spring up outside its borders. The mostambitious project was the Aswan Dam in Egypt, intended to supplyelectricity to the whole of the United Arab Republic.Vadim Radchenko, the Leningrad engineer, was at the very beginning ofthe construction of the Aswan Power Station in 1959. Although naturallytalented and an intellectual, he never knew what he wanted to do, and hehas moved through life like a river on its allotted course.His memories, and several reels of amateur footage filmed in Egypt, become the basis of the film.