Action takes place in the old city of Odessa. After spending a year in the prison for hooliganism, Andrew returns to the shipyard and begins an honest working life. But his biography becomes bait for the thief and recidivist Grenya, who has been running up for many years in this area. Soon, friends and girlfriend of Andrew find out that he was detained by the police and is suspected of stealing. The case is investigated by the criminal police officer Braitsev and his sympathies are clearly on the side of the young man. Step by step Braitsev unravels a complicated tangle of clues and insights that lead him to a well-known fraudster Grenya.