Andrey Potemkin-a future Lieutenant of the border guard service on the eve of graduation from school, reads an essay in a popular newspaper called "Afghan ghosts". When he recognizes his father in the photo, he is deeply perplexed. His mother, Galina Potemkina, and a family friend, Anatoly Fetyukhin, had instilled in him from childhood that Andrey's father, Yuri Potemkin, had died heroically in Afghanistan. But the author of the article, Alyona Nikitina, accuses the captain of the Soviet army of treachery.
And as proof, he cites a photo that shows captain Potemkin with a machine gun in his hands and surrounded by friendly Mujahideen, at whose feet are captured Soviet soldiers. Andrey, for whom a military career is everything in life, and who was brought up, uses his father's example to conduct his own investigation and prove the unfairness of the charges.