County Siberian town of Dudari. The narration is conducted on behalf of the participant in the described events, which he recalls many years later.

The author of the story, who is never named in the story (hereinafter referred to as the Author), is on the criminal wanted list together with his friend Veniamin Malyshev, whose position is the assistant to the head of the secret operational part. Both of them are very young - they are not yet twenty years old. The main task of the criminal investigation department at the described time - after the end of the civil war - is to clear the Dudarinsky district from the bandits hiding in the taiga. Bandits kill rural activists, attack cooperatives, and try to recruit as many accomplices as possible.

Yakov Uzelkov, the correspondent of the provincial newspaper, who writes under the pseudonym Yakuz, a young man of about seventeen to nineteen, comes to Dudari. Wenka Malyshev and his friend Yakuz are impressed by an educated person, because he loves to use tricky words in speech, for example: philanthropist, exaltation, pessimism, familiarity, etc., but friends didn’t like him at once correspondence devoted to the days of criminal investigation and written in an excessively ornate syllable, they find to be untrue.

Criminal investigation officers conduct an operation to neutralize the gang of Ataman Klochkov. During the operation, Wenka was wounded. Klochkov and several gang members were killed, and the rest were arrested. Wenka interrogates one of the arrested - Lazar Baukin, and concludes that Baukin, a hunter and tarry, came to the bandits by accident. During interrogations, Wenka talks with Baukin for a long time, finds out the details of his life and clearly sympathizes with this arrested bandit, who also admitted that it was he who wounded Wenka. Soon, Lazarus and two others arrested make an escape from custody. Wenka is stunned by the escape of his ward.

In a grocery store, located near the criminal investigation department, a pretty young cashier appears who both friends really like, but they are timid and do not dare to get to know her. Soon from Uzelkov they learn that her name is Julia Maltseva and he is familiar with her - she goes to visit her, they talk, discuss books read. Friends, envious of Uzelkov’s education, write to the library and, despite the lack of time, read a lot. Soon they will learn from a familiar librarian that Uzelkov’s entire education was gleaned from the Brockhaus and Efron encyclopedias.

Meanwhile, a gang of Konstantin Vorontsov, “the emperor of all the taiga”, as he calls himself, is announced in a remote area of ​​Dudarinsky county, Voevodsky corner. And the capture of the elusive Kostya Vorontsov becomes the most important problem for the criminal investigation department. Venka Malyshev goes to the Voivodship corner, and what he does there - no one knows, not even his best friend.

In the absence of Venka, the author accidentally meets Julia Maltseva and, when Venka returns from the Voevodsky corner, introduces him to her. Venka loves Julia, but believes that he is not worth it: a few years ago he met one woman and then became ill. Although he soon recovered, nevertheless, he believes that he should tell Yulia about this. Venka writes a letter explaining to Yulia in love and confessing that he is oppressed. Wenka drops the letter in the mailbox that night, and the next morning as part of a detachment of six people goes to the taiga to catch Kostya Vorontsov.

The detachment drives up to the hut, where Kostya’s beloved woman lives - Klanka Zvyagin. After the symbol, the detachment approaches the house where it finds Lazarus Baukin, as well as the related Kostya and several members of his gang. The detachment returns to Dudari, on the way it is surrounded by mounted militia, which arrests Lazarus. The head of the criminal investigation department informs Wenka that he has been presented with a reward for organizing an operation to capture Kostya Vorontsov. Venka refuses the award, believing that he did not deserve it - this is Lazar, whom Venka convinced of the merits of the Soviet government, detained Kostya, and the fact that Lazar was put “for verification” is unfair: he himself wanted everything to be in accordance with the law, that he should be judged for what he is guilty of, and there is nothing to check him after what he has done.

Venka is waiting for a letter from Julia in response to a confession sent the day before. Uzelkov comes and asks Venka to admit him to Vorontsov. Venka denies him this, and here Uzelkov says that Venka is a near man, which he knew before: today he accidentally read his love letter - it was in the book that he was giving Julia to read.

That very evening, Venka ends up with a shot at the temple, never knowing that Julia did not give Uzelkov his letter, and he, in her absence, took his book with the letter enclosed in it.