Six-year-old Marka lives with her mother and grandmother in a village near the railway. The girl's mother, who has lost her husband, is concerned about her unhappy fate. She doesn't care about her little daughter. One day, Marka finds an old book with an illustration of Kramskoy's painting "The Unknown" in a waste paper warehouse. The image in the book fascinates the girl, and she takes the find with her.
