Senior investigator for especially important cases Nikolai Savelyev decides to retire. The 45-year-old man needs to sort out the accumulated problems in his life—to try to save his crumbling marriage, get through to his student son, and simply take a break from work. Unwilling to part with a valuable employee, his boss Boris Kolotov deliberately delays signing the resignation report. Savelyev nevertheless gets his way and returns to his hometown—the provincial city of Stepanovsk.
At the forest cordon named after him, far from noisy Moscow, Savelyev hopes to reflect on the life he has lived. However, while dealing with personal matters, he also has to unravel numerous cases regularly thrown his way by management, acquaintances, and friends. A born detective, even without official status, he is capable of striking fear into numerous criminal elements, so neither Savelyev nor the viewers will have time to be bored.
