: The track guard gives the calf meat, and the cow that gave birth to it ceases to milk. The guard’s son takes care of the cow, trying to alleviate its suffering, but in vain - the animal dies, falling under the composition.

An unnamed cow lives alone in a barn standing in the courtyard of a track guard. Day and evening, the master's son Vasya Rubtsov comes to visit her. A cow yearns for a calf sent to the vet.

At home, the mother tells Vasya that the father has not yet come from the veterinarian, gives his son a flashlight and tells him to meet the 406 train, which will soon pass by the station.

Vasya sees a slow-moving train. In front of the engine, the tired assistant engineer is working with a shovel, sprinkling the rails with sand so that the machine does not skid. The boy offers help, the assistant agrees. The shovel is large and heavy for Vasya, and he sprinkles sprinkles rails with his hands. Having coped with the work, the boy receives two apples from the driver. Then the driver asks him to see if the brakes are held where. Vaska looks and discovers that they are clamped. The driver is angry, and the boy jumps off the bandwagon and goes home.

Father is coming to Vasya. The son wonders where the heifer is. Father replies that for a good price he sold it for slaughter. Father sends the boy home, and he goes around the site. Vasya comes to the cow.She feels that she has sorrow, she eats nothing. Since then, the cow has changed. She runs away, and when she returns, she stops giving milk. Vasya takes care of her, but she does not respond to his care.

One day, returning from school, the boy sees the freight train, that same train driver whom he helped, and a cow killed by the train. The driver wants to help Vasya with money in gratitude for the boy’s past help. Father sells the carcass of a cow. At school, when they write an essay, Vasya writes about a cow.