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As the title of this very effective drama implies, the film is divided into three separate stories. Each features the unhappy experiences of a different Uzbek woman just after World War II and highlights the injustices against women in the society at that time. In the first episode a presumed widow wants to build a house even though tradition dictates that only a husband has that right. The woman does not realize that after the war her husband abandoned her and is now living and working in another town. In the second story, Islamic restrictions and a schoolteacher represent two different but unequal types of authority, and in the last episode a woman from a wealthy family has lived a life of poverty. After she is kidnapped by a peasant she becomes his property, and social customs do not allow her to claim any of her family's wealth. For obvious reasons, the official reaction to this hard-hitting film was not enthusiastic.