The stars of the film include famous Soviet actors such as Yevgeny Leonov, Georgy Vitsin, Savely Kramarov and Radner Muratov.

[1] During the autumn of 1970, in one of the Central Asian Soviet Republics three criminals steal Alexander the Great's golden helmet from the excavation site of an archaeological expedition.

He is disguised with a toupee and fake tattoos, and sent to a Central Asian prison where Docent's accomplices are serving sentences, while their boss is imprisoned in Moscow Oblast.

Troshkin passes off as Docent and feeds Crosseyes and Sad Sack his fake alibi, under which, he hit his head and partially lost his memory, forgetting where his helmet was hidden.

By accident, they get into a wrong truck, and end up far away from the meeting point, with all their clothes covered in cement, and are forced to run in their underwear to the local town posing as a track team.

Troshkin comes in time, breaks them apart and orders the gang to stop causing misdemeanor and using criminal slang and nicknames, so they would at least look and act like ordinary people and stay safe.

Then Troshkin gets a hauling job at a local kindergarten to earn some money for new clothes and for a hotel stay, but tries to make it look for his accomplices like they're performing a robbery, so they won't suspect him.

Alibabayevich feels remorse after the job and wishes to surrender to the police, but is afraid to do it so they won't give him a severe punishment for what he has committed up until now.

Police officers inform Troshkin that the real Docent has broken free from the prison and will probably soon try to track down his henchmen, so the operation must be immediately curtailed.

Troshkin asks for a permission to stay with the gang to celebrate the New Year: being in such company for a long time, he made a decision to awaken the criminals' conscience and make them rethink their lives, even if he had to do it without dropping the crime boss masquerade.

Crosseyes swears to cut ties with the crime world after he's released from prison, and recalls how, before the arrest, Docent made him to dive into an ice-hole at the lake for some reason.

Immediately, Sad Sack realises that the stolen helmet is hidden in the lake, and the trio sets off to the local boat station, where the real Docent finds them, armed with a knife.

Seeing this, the trio runs away in shock down the road (thinking that he has been "shaved clean" for prison and projecting that the same fate awaits them) while Troshkin chases after them to say goodbye.