There are no former border guards. Shirokov, it would seem, had served his duty and returned to civilian life. At the border, a new commander came to his detachment and decided that he did not need Shirokov - he was already old, they say, and had lost his sense of smell, so it was time to move to the garden beds. But in an unexpected encounter with a daring offender, the old skills immediately remind themselves... And the hero of the story “The Fox on the Doorstep,” Captain Balakirev and his colleagues stand in the way of dangerous criminals who have long been hiding from justice.