1962 year.Leningrad.Baron, aka Yuri Alekseev, is robbing a rich apartment. Many years ago, the paths of the Baron and the landlord Martsevich’s apartment did not intersect in the best way. Leningrad. May 1941 Yura is 13 years old. The Alekseev family receives the godfather of Elena’s house, Stepan Kazimirovich Gil, and engineer Kudryavtsev. In fact, Vladimir Kudryavtsev is an employee of the NKVD and must get his diaries from Gil, which he kept as a personal driver of Lenin. Having got to the Alekseevs, Kudryavtsev falls in love with Elena.
May 1941 False charges arrest the father of Jura Vsevolod Alekseev. Kudryavtsev promises to get the necessary drugs to the arrested. Succumbing to a sudden impulse, Vladimir seeks closeness from Elena, she is forced to yield to him. Yuri becomes an involuntary witness to this scene. In the Crosses, Kudryavtsev learns that Vsevolod died, unable to withstand interrogations.
1962 year. On the train, Baron meets the wife of the party worker Alla, who invites him to his home. A love date ends with the Baron secretly taking casts from the keys of Alla’s apartment. May 1941 Gil, who came to the NKVD to fuss about Vsevolod, accidentally sees Kudryavtsev there and understands what's what. Gil, in the presence of Elena, accuses Vladimir of meanness and threatens to report his behavior to high authorities.
1962 year. The baron in Moscow meets with the aged Gil and learns that Kudryavtsev is now a KGB general, but even he could not find Yura's sister Olga, who was taken from the besieged Leningrad to the mainland. The Baron decides to find his sister on his own. At a thieves ’gathering, he agrees to“ expropriate ”Alla’s apartment. While she is waiting for him in a restaurant, the Baron, along with accomplices, is cleaning her living space. May 1941 Chekists decide to "clean up" the reason for the hype raised by Gil. Kudryavtsev rushes to prevent this, but is late - his colleague kills Elena. Kudryavtsev himself was transferred to work in another city.
1962 year. Kudryavtsev comes to visit Gil. Now they are no longer enemies. Upon learning that Yura has become a thief-recidivist, Kudryavtsev requests from Leningrad his criminal dossier. Winter of 1942. Yura with her grandmother and Olya is very tight. Grandma is trying to sell gold earrings in the market and almost becomes a victim of bandits. She shows Yura a cache in which their family jewels and Gil’s diaries are kept.
February 1942 The thief-hopper Geika brings Yura to the head of the grocery base Martsevich, and he exchanges gold jewelry for food from him. After the death of her grandmother, Yura takes Olga to the friends of their family Samarin. After the death of their own daughter, Samarins go to the mainland and take the 6-year-old Olya with them. 1962 year. The baron finds Samarin and learns that in 1942 he “lost” Olya at the railway station in Galich.
February 1942 Returning from work, at the plant, Jura meets Geika, who needs to hide. In his apartment, Yura discovers a sleeping Kudryavtsev and shoots him with a gun from Geika. Teenagers flee the city. They enter the minefield and Geika dies. Jura, under a different surname, falls to the partisans. 1962 year. Looking for Olga, the Baron turns to the Galich Museum, where he gets acquainted with art critic Irina. It turns out that Olga was a student of Irina in the art studio. Having learned Olga’s address from Irina, the Baron goes to Kirov.
In Kirov, the Baron finally finds his sister. He arranges a casual acquaintance with Olga, speaks with her, but he does not dare to tell the girl who he really is. 1942 year. Yuri passes a real baptism of fire in the partisan detachment: he participates in an attack on policemen, conflicts with the looter Bityug, falls in love with a young Claudia ...
1942 year. Kudryavtsev appears in the partisan detachment, whom Yura only wounded in the winter in Leningrad. Between them there is a serious male conversation, after which they part with almost friends. 1962 year. General Kudryavtsev meets with a former colleague who led the case of Yuri Alekseev, and learns from him about the circumstances of twenty years ago. 1944 year. Yura receives leave for military merits and ends up in Leningrad, where he is imprisoned for violating the regime and escaping from a commandant patrol. The real surname of Yura pops up, and he receives the first term.
1962 year. Irina is in big trouble at work due to the regional inspection commission. 1940s. The intercession of the prison authority of Chibis helps Yure Baron himself become a camp authority. 1947 year. In the new zone, Jura-Baron meets the marauder Bityug, who is trying to bring Yura to clean water with his partisan-frontal past. Yura enters into a deadly duel with him ...
The baron, with his companions, armed with a fake police ID, arranges such a showdown for the inspection commission that they quickly leave Galich. 1962 year. The baron confesses to Irina in his criminal past and asks to go to Olga to give her money and letters. The much-overwhelmed Baron is heading to Leningrad for a new fishing business.
Leningrad detectives decide to catch Baron on live bait: they equip an empty apartment with expensive antiques and let him know about it. General Kudryavtsev meets with Klavdia Mikhailovna, the former partisan Klava, to find out details about Yura-Baron. After the war, she worked as a doctor in the camp where Yura went, and achieved his release as a tuberculosis patient. Claudia recalls how Yura saved her from violence by Bityug, and became her first girlish love.
In the “front apartment” everything is ready for Baron’s raid, but he goes to business a little earlier and catches the operatives by surprise, they have to call for reinforcements. The baron pays attention to some details of the situation and understands that this is a trap. He comes up with a non-standard escape plan ...
The Baron meets with Moscow thieves and takes away part of his booty from them. One of the criminals, who is on the hook at Kudryavtsev, informs the general about the appearance of the Baron. Upon exiting the thief’s gathering, the Baron was twisted by security officers. Kudryavtsev takes Baron to his official dacha, where Gil is waiting for them. Gil and Kudryavtsev persuade Baron to confess ...
Having risen in the morning to Baron’s room, Kudryavtsev discovers it is empty. Instead of confessing, the Baron, wanting to save his face, commits a ridiculous crime: he steals a police car, and even with a large box of ice cream. Kudryavtsev visits the Baron in the zone. The commandant tells him about the tragic death of Irina. Kudryavtsev informs Baron of the death of Gil, as well as of the misfortunes that fell on Olga. Baron asks Kudryavtsev to transport Olga to Sweden, to their native aunt. Kudryavtsev sends Olga to Stockholm as an employee of the Soviet embassy.
1970 year. Baron leaves the colony. Kudryavtsev, already retired, undertakes to transfer the Baron to his sister in Sweden. The Baron gives him the manuscripts of Gil, which brought so much grief to the Alekseev family. Kudryavtsev does not suspect that his Chekist colleagues have “grazed” him for a long time.
