A group of drunken young people severely beat the couple in love. Subsequently, Aleksandr Shchetinin died in the hospital after receiving injuries from beatings. The court, chaired by Judge Khromova, is to pronounce the death sentence on one of the four participants in the fight, who committed the fatal blow that led to death.

Makartsev, who is serving a sentence for theft, suddenly confesses to a murder he once committed. The case is entrusted to investigator Sukhareva, who in the course of the investigation becomes convinced that many of the possible participants in the murder have put an end to their criminal past. However, some of them deny their involvement in the murder, which, as it turns out, and was not. The victim of the crime, whom everyone thought was murdered, is alive. The court must find out the degree of guilt of people who have long repented for the crime they committed.

The end of the 1940s. Test pilot Aleksei Kolchin was commissioned for the first time to fly the first Soviet jet fighter. The tests are successful, but it is necessary to improve the aircraft. When performing a test flight, Kolchin dies, his last words are recorded on tape. Having studied them, Kolchin's friend Sergei Sharov makes a new attempt and completes the test of the aircraft.