[1][2] The film tells the story of a meticulous investigator who unravels a web of deceit, obsession, and mistaken motives while searching for a missing man presumed murdered, only to uncover him alive and drunk in an unexpected hiding place.

Gardener Yefrem notices that his master, retired cornet Klyauzov, has suspiciously not woken up for a week and hasn't left his bedroom.

Indeed, Chubikov and Dyukovsky find Klyauzov alive, healthy, and predictably drunk, being held as a "prisoner" by Olga in an abandoned bathhouse.

[3] Elena Bauman of the Soviet Screen magazine called the movie "one of the first signs of the new "free" cinema" (referring to the Khrushchev Thaw era) "which — as it seemed — accidentally stepped over the stone-dead canons, playfully challenged the sedate art style of those years".

At the same time, she noted the superb ensemble cast that consisted of some of the biggest comedy names and a very authentic portrait of Anton Chekhov's period and writings.