Interior Ministry colonels Gurov and Kryachko are investigating the case of an accident in which retired Interior Ministry general Davishin died. Former colleagues of the general unanimously characterize him as a rare bastard who used his official position for personal gain. Detectives fly to Irkutsk, where the deceased began his career. What you manage to learn from the old-timers there leads Gurov and Kryachko to bewilderment. It turns out that in the past of the general lies a terrible secret that once divided his life into "before" and "after."