Success in work and rapid advancement through the ranks turned the young, capable geologist and prospector Andrei Chernogorov into a dry, selfish careerist. Simple, human relationships ceased to exist for him. Varya, Andrei’s wife, a collector by profession, having separated from her husband, leaves to look for a zirconium deposit. After some time, Andrei was sent to the same survey party. Arriving in the desert among ordinary people with their harsh, working everyday life, he begins to realize that he behaved unworthily.

A high-crime investigator goes to the scene where corruption and crime have taken on new and sophisticated forms in the mountainous southern region of the country. Under the guise of a random train robbery, individual cars loaded with waste from metallurgical production - and essentially enriched gold ore - are stolen. The kidnappers have all the means at their disposal. They mercilessly kill those who try to stop them from stealing tons of gold...