Main characters: Mishka Dodonov - a 12-year-old boy, his family - his mother and two brothers (Fedka 4 years old and Yashka 8 years old), all the boy's other relatives died of hunger, Seryozhka Karpushin - his friend (11 years old), a man Prokhor, Trofim (a boy who was digging in the trash), a train driver. . .
Mishka heard from the men in the village that bread is cheap in Tashkent, but it is very difficult to get to the city: 2 thousand miles there and back. And you also need to pay for a ticket and a pass. Mishka persuades Seryozhka to go with him, only Seryozhka is scared. Tashkent seemed to Mishka like a fairy-tale city. His mother did not want to let her son go, but she finally agreed. Mishka took with him a folding knife, a mug, a piece of grass bread, an old grandmother's skirt, salt, a rope and two sacks for bread.