Captain Emelin, nicknamed Emelya, Captain Vasin and Dolbunov are investigating the most complicated crimes, and criminologist Masha Likhacheva helps them in this. Emelya's reputation is so-so, the head of the department, Colonel Khitruk, dislikes him for his independent character, but has to put up with him because Emelya has a good disclosure.

100 Minutes is the tale of thousands of Soviet soldiers who fought the Nazis and whose only ‘crime’ was to get caught. Stalin’s justice meted out on the prisoners who returned home was swift: ten years of forced labour in the Siberian camps. Why then would prisoners like Ivan Denisovich fight to stay alive to face another day of hell?