Set in Odessa at the end of the Civil War when the town is occupied by the Whites. The night coachman, fifty-year-old Gordi Yaroshchuk, lives with his daughter Kate who gets involved with a Bolshevik and revolutionary.

Hordii (Gordej) the night coachman serves many rich passengers, including a number of officers of the Russian Volunteer army fighting against the Bolsheviks. One day he learns that his only daughter Katia is a member of the Bolshevik-Anarchist underground, and that she is hiding her comrade Borys, with whom she prints Bolshevik proclamations, in the attic. Wanting to protect his daughter from possible arrest, Hordii reveals Borys' hiding place to the White Army officers. However, when they come to search, Katia is in the attic. She is arrested and killed in front of her father. Stunned by this, Hordii drives the carriage with Katia's killer down the Odessa Steps (of Potemkin fame), thus saving Borys, who has just been arrested.—Ivan Kozlenko