The main character of the novel, war veteran Dmitry Shadrin, having graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, begins working as an investigator in the last years of the Stalinist regime. He opposes violations of the law in the prosecutor's office, which is why a difficult, dramatic period in his life begins. The novel also shows the fate of many other contemporaries of Dmitry Shadrin, including the illegally repressed brigade commander Verigin, former deputy people's commissar Rodimov.