The story follows an old Cossack, Taras Bulba, and his two sons, Andriy and Ostap returning home from an Orthodox seminary in Kiev. Ostap is the more adventurous, whereas Andriy has deeply romantic feelings of an introvert. While in Kiev, he fell in love with a young Polish girl. The three men set later out on a journey to Zaporizhian Sich located in Southern Ukraine, where they join other Cossacks and go to war against Poland.