A chemist by training, Alexandr Bochkin manages a Moscow dry-cleaning operation, but lives a very comfortable life, taking orders on the side for his speculative "private enterprise," run in conjunction with "Queen Margot". But when his old friend from the chemical institute, Yuri Lebedev arrives in Moscow from the Siberian city of Dalnegorsk, along with a traveling companion, Olga, Bochkin becomes uncomfortable with his job title.