A Moldovan village in the late forties. Andrei Brume, a Komsomol member, university student and MGB lieutenant, is on a mission to fight a criminal gang. The situation is extremely dramatic. On the one hand, there are night raids by Stratan's gang, on the other - endless official extortion, respectfully referred to as a "state loan", when the chairman of the collective farm, Maria Josan, groping the trigger of a revolver, calls on hard workers to respond to the call of the Motherland...