April 1959. Tanya Meshcherskaya, who grew up in an orphanage, goes to Moscow to her father, academician Viktor Ryabinsky. She has a letter with her and an antique brooch left over from her mother, which is being stolen. Vikenty is happy to find a daughter, as he loved her mother, but his wife takes Tanya with hostility. She tries to find out the details from Vikenty's sister, but she doubts that Vikenty is Tanya's father.