Soviet Union, 1937. Thousands of letters from prisoners falsely accused by the regime are burned in a cell. Against all odds, one of them reaches its destination: the desk of the newly appointed local prosecutor, Alexander Kornev. Kornev does everything he can to find the prisoner, a victim of corrupt agents of the secret police, the NKVD. A staunch and dedicated Bolshevik, the young prosecutor suspects foul play. His quest for justice will lead him to the Prosecutor General's Office in Moscow. In the era of the great Stalinist purges, this is the plunge of one man into the corridors of a totalitarian regime that doesn't bear that name.