Major Andrey Vershinin, a police archive employee, is being promoted to the border town of Portovyy. Vershinin will occupy the post of head of the Internal Affairs Directorate instead of the recently deceased Colonel Avdeev. The new boss in Portovoy is met with caution: his subordinates are almost openly in conflict with him, and the press and the public, excited by the recent series of impudent robberies, are simply outraged by this appointment. Nobody believes that the former "clerical rat" is able to change something in a criminal environment. However, Vershinin from the very beginning makes it clear that he will not give up even in an atmosphere of general mistrust. The first and most faithful ally of his unexpectedly becomes a local journalist Anna Loginova, at first herself seriously tarnishing Vershinin's reputation. Together they begin a search for raiders who attacked police officers transporting detained drug couriers, as well as bandits who staged a shootout on the anniversary of the local lawyer Medushevskiy. In addition, Vershinin is very worried about the suspicious activity around the local orphanage, whose pupils are sometimes taken out for unknown purposes.
