A kind, yet naïve, ethnography student named Shurik (Aleksandr Demyanenko), known from earlier films as a student at the Polytechnic Institute, goes to the Caucasus to learn ancient customs and traditions practiced by the locals, including local "myths, legends, and toasts". At the start of the film, Shurik is making his way along a mountain road in the Caucasus on a donkey. He comes upon a truck driver named Edik whose truck refuses to start. The donkey gets stubborn and neither man is able to get his respective mode of transportation going.