During the Revolution and the ensuing brief period of War Communism, many hid their valuables as reliably as possible. And Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, a former leader of nobility and secular lion and now - a modest clerk in a registry office, learns from his dying mother-in-law that once she hid her diamonds and pearls for a total of 150,000 gold rubles under the upholstery of one of the twelve chairs of the famous furniture master Gambs. Having left everything, Vorobyaninov rushes to find the chairs, in which, of course selfishly motivated, a young adventurer, and "tipster" Ostap Bender decides to help him. To find traces of the fragmented headset is not easy. What does not facilitate the situation is the fact that before her death, Vorobyaninov's mother-in-law opened the secret of treasures to her confessor, Father Fyodor, who has a lifelong dream of having his own candle factory in Samara.