Yuri Malkovskiy

A former aristocrat Ippolit Vorobyaninov leads a miserable life in Soviet Russia. His mother-in-law reveals a secret to him - she hid family diamonds in one of the twelve chairs they once had. Vorobyaninov in cooperation with a young con artist Ostap Bender start a long search for the diamonds.

A group of drunken young people severely beat the couple in love. Subsequently, Aleksandr Shchetinin died in the hospital after receiving injuries from beatings. The court, chaired by Judge Khromova, is to pronounce the death sentence on one of the four participants in the fight, who committed the fatal blow that led to death.

Based on the eponymous novel by A.I. Herzen.