From the port town of Abasta (which resembles
Mo‘ynoq) at the southern shore of the
Aral Sea, Captain Marat sets off on a fishing trip despite a storm warning, since on this day an extraordinary amount of fish comes into the bay. After some hesitation, he takes his wife Dari along but sends her younger sister Tamara home. The ship sinks in the storm, leaving Marat the sole survivor. Ten years later, Marat is released from prison and returns to the town only to find that the sea has gone. The sea is now far away, and the port's pier rises into a vast sand desert with rusted ships. Town people treat Marat with hostility for the loss of their relatives during the naval accident. None of the missing crew members was ever found. Tortured by feelings of guilt, Marat starts to drag his ship with his own muscles in search of the sea. Only his old friend Balthazar stands by him. Tamara, the younger sister of his drowned wife Dari, loved Marat from her childhood and is now desperately trying to win his heart; Marat insists that Dari is his wife and tells her that he has "ashes in his heart". He only lives on for his quest of searching the sea, believing that if he finds the sea, he would also see his crew and his beloved wife Dari again, because "the sea doesn't kill. It returns what it takes". In the end, Marat dies of sickness and exhaustion. The perspective now changes into the soul of Marat: In a storm the sea returns and takes Marat on his ship out in the open, accompanied by the
revelation of John 21:1. ==Cast==