In 1986, the Soviet leadership made an unprecedented attempt to conquer Mars. Parts of the Mir-Express interplanetary manned spacecraft, on which the Soviet crew was supposed to reach the orbit of the Red Planet, were launched into the Earth's geostationary orbit. Unfortunately, an explosion occurred during the assembly of the module. The ship was mothballed and the project closed. Thirty years later, cosmonauts Stanislav Basargin and Mikhail Matyushin, having carried out the depreservation of the Mir Express, headed for the orbit of the moon in order to prove or deny the presence of traces of the American lunar expedition there. The outdated ship almost crashes into the surface of the satellite, with a monstrous effort the astronauts manage to save it and direct it to Earth. But mortal danger hangs over them again: Basargin unexpectedly becomes the owner of classified information about the criminal corruption of the oligarch and presidential candidate Velesov, the main sponsor of this flight. To prevent the disclosure of incriminating evidence, Velesov does everything possible so that the crew never returns to Earth...