女青年凌宇应聘到居委会当主任，上任第一天，碰到一对谁也不愿意做结扎手术而闹到居委会的年轻夫妇，二人把未婚的凌宇误当成“过来人”，争着向她诉说各自的理由。正当凌宇万分尴尬之际，老主任刘娘赶到，三言两语打发了这对夫妇，凌宇对刘娘充满感激。 原来，凌宇大学毕业后一直想在人生的道路上有一番作为，然而一直未能如愿，于是她应聘来居委会当主任。在老主任刘娘的帮助下，凌宇凭着一颗火热的心，以全新的社会模式，通过解决下岗职工再就业、支持“畅通工程”、帮助待业青年、维护区内治安、建立老年人医疗保健体制等，使社区建设跨上了一个新台阶，最终赢得了居民们的信任和支持，同时也在火热的工作与生活中得到了爱情
Coming as it does from the depths of the Stalinist regime, the Russian Road to Life is a remarkably optimistic film. A host of nonprofessional children are cast as Moscow street kids, left homeless by the Bolshevik revolution. They get into all sorts of melodramatic scrapes until they're rounded up by kindly, altruistic Soviet functionaries. The children are reformed (in the nicest possible way) and made useful members of society. Road to Life is simplistic in its solutions to society's problems, albeit no more so than the usual Hollywood product from the same period.
端爪北斗从小受双亲的家暴成长，不幸误入歧途变成杀人犯，被逮捕审判的社会故事。