As an adviser to the emperor Nicholas II, mystic Grigori Rasputin holds great influence over the empire. However, many in St Petersburg begin to regard Rasputin, with his strange practices and mesmerizing qualities, as a liability and plot his assassination. When Rasputin, known to many as the 'Mad Monk', leads Nicholas to embrace an ill-conceived military strategy, a group of determined conspirators set down a plan to eliminate him.

In a training flight, the Il-28 plane crashes. Shooter-radio operator Sorokin without an order leaves the plane, lands first and writes a denunciation to the pilot Yegorov. Yegorov has to leave military service, his beloved girlfriend Nadya is leaving him. Sixteen years have passed since then. Nadya is married to the slanderer Sorokin and brings up a son with him who doesn't know who his real father is. One day, the whole family ends up on an airplane controlled by Yegorov. Clarification of relations leads to a belated triumph of truth, which affects all heroes: one destroys, the other exalts, in the third instills hope...