The year is 1949. Former front-line soldier and former investigator Sergei Gastev departs from investigative activities, faced with an unexpected problem of official mutual assistance. Attempts to restore justice almost end up in prison for himself. Gastev decides to limit his activities to teaching Roman law at the university of a small regional town. In Sergei's personal life, too, everything is not easy: the affair with the city Komsomol leader Lyudmila Mishina has to be carefully hidden...