Although the film’s hero is quiet, small and modest, his name is Centaur. He considers the Kyrgyz people as descendants of the centaurs of ancient Greek mythology and believes that the Heavens have punished his once omnipotent people for breaking the rule of their destiny and abusing it in their dealings with other peoples. Therefore a genuine racer has to be found and ridden through the steppe at night, with a prayer of forgiveness for the ancestors’ acts, so that Kambar-Ata himself will appear and lift the curse. And then his people will once again become omnipotent and noble.
For this reason he steals the most precious racing horses in the district, each time accomplishing a ritual. The rich men from whom he steals suspect a well-known horse-thief, Sadyrbek, who is almost sent to prison. Humiliated, Sadyrbek conspires with the victims of theft and catches the real thief.
One of these robbed men, Karabai, recognizes in the thief Centaur his relative, whom he had married out of pity to the young deaf-mute Maripa (in fact he was then already around 50 years old), who gave birth to a son, Kushtar. Karabai gives him a chance to redeem himself and takes him along to Mecca to make a pilgrimage to the holy place. But in Mecca Centaur does not restrain himself and abducts the horse of a well-known Arabian sheikh; the newspapers report that the sheikh’s racer has turned into Burak, Mohammed’s sacred horse. Only Karabai knows what has actually happened. Upon his return Karabai surrenders Centaur to the court of the Elders (aksakal) and they ask Centaur to leave. By then his wife has taken his son Kushtar and left for an unknown destination: she had, after all, seen with her own eyes how Centaur left the house of the lovely widow Sharapat.
Centaur withdraws to the mountains and finds a grazing herd of horses. He mounts one of the horses and rides to the mountain ridge. There Centaur either flies up to Heaven after having been heard by his protector Kambar-Ata, or simply falls into the abyss, but soars up in the air during his prayer.
In the courtyard of their house Maripa plays with her son Kushtar. They have already come back. Suddenly Kushtar, who is mute (like his mother), tells the father’s legend. Kushtar can speak.
