Around 1964, Aleksei returns to Yelan with an oil drilling crew. His uncle, Spiridon, has returned from prison a bitter and frail man, and Aleksei feels only pity. He meets Taya and has a casual affair, but she is also courted by Aleksei's boss Tofik, causing a rift. Meanwhile, Philip Solomin in Moscow, has risen high into the ranks of Soviet leadership, but wrestles with his conscience over the plan for a massive hydroelectric dam project that would flood Yelan. Aleksei resigns from the oil drilling operation to leave town, stopping at Taya's house to take her with him to the resort city of Sochi, but it becomes clear that they have grown apart; she refuses to say whether the child she expects is Aleksei's or Tofik's. Aleksei storms off, and the oil well blows out as he leaves town. The blowout turns into an inferno and Aleksei rushes in to save a former coworker, and dies in the process. As Spiridon gloats over the demise of the last Ustyuzhanin, Taya reveals to him that she bears Aleksei's child.