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.