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As Kazakhstan emerges from the shadow of its domination by the defunct Soviet Union, films such as this melodrama are beginning to appear. Set in the 1950s, this drama explores the fates of a mother and daughter who are considered to have damaged their family's honor. Kryzhimkul is a 14-year-old whose prospects for arranged marriage are being completely handled by her father and male kin, and she has no say in how anything is done. When Kryzhimkul's father Dauletbai rejects the suit of a poorer family, one of that family's loyal servants abducts and rapes her. At that time in her society, women who had been raped were viewed as serious liabilities to the family honor. Now considered damaged goods, unsuitable for marriage and an embarrassment to her family, she is turned out of her home even though she is pregnant. Against all reason, her distraught mother is also considered to have contributed to the family loss of face, and she too is punished.