Feliks is a young painter who arrives in Moscow from the south. He has experienced war and is facing death. He yearns for a quiet life. He takes in Chourik, a 13-year-old boy who ran away from home, taking his father's pistol with him, feeling at war with the whole world... One day Feliks receives money from a former war comrade, but not to buy him a painting but to commit a murder. He goes to the abandoned house from where he is supposed to shoot. But he cannot bring himself to shoot. He is arrested and questions the balance of his life, while Chourik returns home, throws his pistol into the river and at the same time his aggression towards society.