The life of Major General Vasily Efimovich Grachev is similar to an action-packed novel. Having a "reservation," he voluntarily went to the front in the terrible autumn of the 42nd, went through the crucible of the Battle of Kursk in the ranks of the airborne division... suddenly discovering that he actually serves in the detachment attached to the legendary SMERSH. And the next decades of service in military counterintelligence, filled with a continuous struggle with strangers and their own - with the agents of the Abwehr and the CIA, with Western Ukrainian nationalists and with the intrigues of the omnipotent deputy chairman of the KGB Tsinev... No, this is not an affair. This is reality.