The story about actors who will never agree to betray their theatre, even if they will have to burn themselves. And other instructions on how to behave if a whiskered man breaks into your house and wants you to leave it.

Matvey Pestsov, an employee of the District Party Committee, proposes to introduce collective contracting in one of the collective farms. The administration and the chairman of the collective farm Volgin are against the experiment. But Pestsov does not give up.

He and she met by chance in a backwater hotel, poor. In their hunger ideas an idea is born — "catch the bait" crazed provincial melancholy men, ready to be wined and dined charming girl…

The main character of the film is a veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR, the general who remained in the ranks, who once traveled from Khalkhin-Gol to Berlin, has the largest awards. A strong and reliable person who has lost his son in a war treats everyone with whom fate brings him with sympathy and understanding. One day he comes to Crimea - to those places where he used to be happy in his youth, to see the house where his family lived. There he meets an elderly woman and her two grandchildren. One of the boys, Nikolay, reminded him of his own son. The friendship begins between an adult and a child, so necessary for each of them.

In one of the southern cities there is a gang of criminals preparing a coup to seize power. She is opposed by another group, which is also not averse to taking the city into its own hands. For the time being, the gang leaders act together, as they are interested in destabilizing the situation in the city.