A black-and-white thriller by Stanislav Govorukhin refers to classic noir: the financial director is confident that he has calculated the crime down to the smallest detail, but a series of coincidences shatter the perfect alibi. The financial director of a large company commits a crime and is sure he has foreseen everything necessary for a flawless alibi. However, almost immediately a crack appears in his calculations: one coincidence leads to another, and a carefully prepared plan begins to work against its author. Stanislav Govorukhin constructs the story as a continuous narrowing of the space of freedom - the more the hero tries to control the consequences of his actions, the tighter the trap becomes. The film is based on the novel by Noël Calef "Lift to the Scaffold."