An unemployed man receives an unexpected offer of cooperation under very dubious circumstances, not knowing the true goals and not imagining the consequences, he accepts it and sets off a chain of subsequent events. A scientist is one step away from a major discovery, and a local detective is assigned a strange investigation that leads him to the laboratory. What secrets are hidden behind its walls? What do its employees guard so carefully? And what sacrifices are they willing to make for the benefit of society? This is a story about the paths of progress, which are by no means always good.