Soviet telling of the life Mirza Fatali Akhundov, an Azerbaijani educator, playwright, and philosopher. In the movie, he is shown as a devoted son of his people and a fiery fighter for the progressive ideas of his time. We see Akhundov traveling to Ottoman Istanbul in his quest to reform the alphabet, as well as his struggles to educate his people, ensnared in the ignorance of an Islam controlled by corrupt mullahs. That the film slams both Tsarist colonial ambitions and the foundations of Sharia Islam in the Caucasus in pre-revolutionary Russia, certainly offended no Bolshevik in the Stalinist USSR (though its treading into the area of supporting Azerbaijani nationalism must have provided for some tense moments with the censors; especially the parts which called the Caucasian peoples to shake off their inertia, sadness, and pessimism to win back their freedom from Russian dominance and conniving religious leaders).