A girl with a secret assignment arrives in a provincial town, where she meets a scavenger, who in the evening turns out to be an elegant and ironic respectable gentleman. A mutual interest arises between them, and they begin to play the game, trying to guess each other's past.
Second half of the 1960s.
Novikov, an employee of the apparatus, is a charming and successful functionary, married to the daughter of a former party leader. His life is a success — he has a status, a family, two children, as well as a young mistress — student Tanya, for whom he will never divorce... During the conflict at a youth construction site in Siberia, which he must repay, Novikov shows himself as an experienced dodger and a provocateur. Tanya's father, a war veteran and an honest worker, Ivan Dronov considers himself entitled to punish this scoundrel...
Early 50s. Frosts, unusual for the Black Sea coast, scathered orange trees used for breeding new varieties at the experimental botanical station. There is only one specimen left, and there is nothing to pollinate it with.
