About a little orphan shoemaker Artemka, who falls in love with the circus. The action takes place in pre-revolutionary Russian Empire.
The film portrays the life of the legendary Azerbaijani guerrilla of the Second World War Mehdi Huseynzadeh, who fought the Nazi forces in the present-day Italy and Slovenia, hence the film's name On distant shores referring to the Adriatic Sea.
Based on the novel of the same name of Mehdi Huseyn. Engineer-geologist Imanov assembles a young team to explore presumed oil reserves beneath the Black Rocks despite his superior Halilov’s bans. When the ministry greenlights offshore drilling, Halilov’s sabotage and political attacks only strengthen Imanov and his colleagues’ resolve to prove the field’s potential.
Among the usual cases, talking with drunkards, a junior cop finds time for the neighbor girl Alla, who fell under the influence of the leader of the thieves' gang. Seeing her with a young man, suspected of theft, he tries to detain him.