contemporary music was incorporated into the film Volga-Volga by the director, with the addition of angst and Lyubov Orlova playing the opposite of her Katya Muratova part. Plot In the provincial city of Melkovodsk along the banks of the Volga river, the musically inclined letter carrier Dunya Petrova, aka "Arrow" travels on a barge to carry an important message to Ivan Byvalov. Arrow has a great passion for music, and wishes to be a singer. Also travelling with Arrow is her boyfriend Alesha Trubyshkin, the conductor of a classical orchestra. She breaks up with him after he insults her song-writing abilities. Byvalov is an ambitious, pompous and rather boorish apparatchik who is hoping for promotion that will take him to a job in Moscow, and is most interested in her message. Arrow delivers the message to Byvalov, which is that Moscow wants amateur performers for the Moscow Musical Olympiad. Byvalov replies that no one has any musical talent in Melkovodsk, and he can send no performers. Arrow then leads what appears to be the entire population of the city in a series of songs and dances intended to prove the people do have musical talents. Byvalov finally agrees to send performers when he realizes this is a chance to go to Moscow. Two groups of performers led by Trubyshkin and Arrow board a paddle-wheeler to go to Moscow, but Byvalov expels the group led by Arrow under the grounds that they have no musical talent while allowing Trubyshkin and his orchestra to stay. Undeterred, Arrow and her group board a raft and then a sailing boat to race the paddle-wheeler to Moscow. A series of comic mishaps occur as the two groups race to Moscow and along the way, Trubyshkin and Arrow exchange vessels, when both go looking for each other. Arrow and her group finally board the modern ship Iosif Stalin, where she finishes off The Song of the Volga that Trubyshkin disparaged. Due to a storm, the lyrics and notes for the song are lost. Arrow is heart-broken when she discovers that her song has become the most popular song in the Soviet Union after the lyric notes are discovered, fearing that she will never receive the credit she deserves. Trubyshkin finally recognizes her musical talent and the two reconcile. In Moscow, Byvalov is credited as the author of the song because the lyrics are written on paper