Pavel Ivanovich Shumov is a public assessor of the court, an engineer, and a good family man. At the next court hearing, some circumstances of the defendant’s life convince the hero that this is his son. Shumov is looking for the defendant’s mother and, not recognizing her as the woman he once loved, returns home...

Early postwar years in a small mining town near Tula. While the adults, who are mostly women, are busy with work, the youngsters are left to fend for themselves and fight their own battles.