A story of a Ukrainian philistine Apollo Shmyguyev, who tries to benefit from numerous changes of authorities and political chaos in Kyiv during the 1917—1922 Soviet Civil War. The zealous, chameleonic and inconstant Apollo quickly becomes the head of the local commissariat, but the thirst for profit endangers his life over and over again. The plot of this comedy road movie alternately places the protagonist traveling on a camel to hostile camps of Bolsheviks, royalists, and anarchists, but selfish interests and lucre remain his one and only drive.