In 1918, river flotillas were established by the "founders" in Samara, by Trotsky in Nizhny Novgorod, by the Izhevsk insurgents, and by the Chekists in Perm. Meanwhile, the world was swept by an engineering revolution, where steam engines competed with diesel engines, and the Russian confrontation between the Reds and Whites was powerfully challenged by the struggle of oil industry leaders — the British Shell consortium and the Russian Nobel brothers company. The war was fought by people, technologies, and capital. In the bloody and fiery whirl, river sailors found themselves sometimes Red, sometimes White. They were forced to shoot their comrades in the main cause of life, forced to sink steamships — the glory and pride of the river fleet. How to preserve your conscience amid disaster? How to protect those you love, who have trusted you? How to defend progress that is indifferent to social battles? There, on the decks of river tugs, captains sought an honest path to the future, and the little man became stronger than the huge and mighty steamship.