The action takes place in the early 20's. in a large Siberian provincial city. Two seventeen-year-old working guys, Yegorov and Zaitsev, who were sent to work on a criminal wanted list on a Komsomol ticket, undergo an internship for a month - a probationary period. They both receive invitations to the anniversary of the October Revolution. Egorova’s sister Katya, one raising three young children, is very pleased with this circumstance: she believes that now Yegorova will definitely be hired, because it is very respectfully written on the ticket: “Dear comrade Egorov!” With the money set aside for the purchase of boots for children, Katya buys a jacket and a jacket for her brother, otherwise he has nothing to go for the evening. At the festival, Yegorov meets Zaitsev, who came with the girl, and is somewhat envious of him, because Zaitsev has a lot to give in life: he has a girl and he is always with money (it turns out he writes notes to the newspaper), and he is wanted mastered much faster than Egorov.
The senior criminal investigator, Zhur, who oversees the interns, takes them with him to investigate the suicide of pharmacist Kolomeyts. Zaitsev helps Zhur get the suicide out of the loop, Egorov writes the protocol. At the moment when Zhur dictates the details of the inspection of the corpse, Yegorov faints. Having woken up, Yegorov comes to the conclusion that he will no longer serve in the criminal investigation department, and is ready to go home, however, Zhur does not let him go.
The next day, Zhur sends Yegorov to the dead to check whether the pharmacist’s body is frozen. The dead man's watchman offers Egorov to look for a pharmacist himself, and Yegorov, feeling that he is nauseous, finds a pharmacist and, moreover, having gathered his last courage, helps the old man to put him on ice. From the dead, he comes out completely without strength.
On the same night, Zhur, taking with him trainees and several other officers of the criminal investigation department, sets off for a serious operation - in search of weapons hidden by the bandits. When they pass the cemetery, Zhur suddenly confesses to Yegorov that he was also afraid of the dead before, and this recognition makes Zhur closer and clearer to Yegorov. Zhur, Zaitsev and Yegorov come with a search to the house to the merchant Ozherelyev, who rents the tenants the rooms, open the floors and find three boxes of weapons. Suddenly a tearful three-year-old boy appears, and a scary old woman, like a woman-yaga, explains that it is "Verkin’s son, and where Verka is now, no one knows." Egorov raises the child from the floor, and he tightly hugs his neck. One of the girls living in Ozherelyev’s house says to the child: “This is your dad,” and the boy kisses Yegorov. Having finished the search, the group leaves, and Yegorov takes the child with him in order to take him to an orphanage, and in the meantime he brings him home to his sister. Katya, at first terrified that his brother brought the boy, having washed and dressed him up, decides to leave the child with him: where there are three, there are four. That same evening, Yegorov receives his first salary in two worked weeks, and Katya arranges a gala dinner.
Criminal Investigation Officer Vorobeichik tells Zhur about how he took Zaitsev on a mission - the detention of a killer. The killer, who had stabbed his wife’s lover with an ax, locked himself in the barn, but Zaitsev, not afraid of the killer armed with the ax, disarmed him and, suddenly brutalized, pounced on him, so Vorobeychik barely managed to wrest the killer from his hands. Zhur does not really like the story of Vorobeychik, and when they bring the killer, it turns out that this is Zhura's old friend Afonya Solovyov. Zhur refuses to conduct Solovyov’s case and reprimands Zaitsev for beating the arrested. Zaitsev does not believe that he did the wrong thing: if the killer is armed with an ax, you need to act decisively and boldly. “But don't beat!” - Zhur remarks, but Zaitsev remains unconvinced. Finally, the trial period ends. At the meeting of the criminal investigators, everyone was in favor of leaving Zaitsev to work, only Zhur made the remark that Zaitsev was too hot, he needed to be restrained a little. As for Yegorov, only Zhur speaks out for him, and then very carefully: “Why don't we try it again?” And then the rest agree that he’s nothing, just a shy guy. And Yegorov is given the last task - to go to the Golden Table casino. He does not need to do anything there, just watch.
Egorov, having put on a new jacket, appears at the casino, and suddenly a strange man comes up to him with the eyes of a madman, offers to go out, they go out to the back stairs, Egorov sees some strange eyes shining in the dark and hears a grave, but slightly familiar voice: "Hands up!" Egorov knocks out a gun from the hands of an unknown person, struggles with a madman and suddenly hears the voice of Vorobeychik, who, it turns out, decided to play a trick on him along with another criminal investigator, Yegorov unfamiliar: one pretended to be crazy, the other put on a terrible mask with luminous eyes. Angry Egorov does not give them the gun they had taken from them and escorts the jokers to the criminal wanted list. However, along the way, Yegorov succumbs to their persuasion, returns the gun to them and lets them go, promising not to tell anyone about the incident.
Having returned to the criminal wanted list, Yegorov finds out that his probationary period is over and that tomorrow he and Zaitsev are enlisted in the state.
