1953. Due to the mass amnesty in the USSR, the criminal situation is tense. At the same time, Ivan Astafiev, a former reconnaissance platoon commander, returns to his hometown of Gorky. And then he becomes a victim of an attack by bandits, and then falsely accused of beating the attackers. Ivan's pre-war acquaintance, Captain Shvedov, helps him out of trouble and gets him a job at the Dynamo sports society to train police officers in hand-to-hand combat.