An employee of the police archive - Major Andrei Vershinin - is suddenly promoted and transferred to the border town of Portovy. Vershinin will occupy the post of head of the Internal Affairs Directorate instead of the recently deceased Colonel Avdeev. The new boss is met coldly: his subordinates are almost openly in conflict with him, and the press and the public, excited by the recent series of robberies, are simply outraged by this appointment ...