December 1949 Hypnotist and telepathist Wolf Messing, who works on the Soviet stage as an artist of the original genre, predicts Stalin the death of his son Vasily and the Air Force hockey team in a plane crash.

1909, Mount Calvaria. Little Wolf escapes from his parent's house, gets on a train without a ticket and, having hypnotized the controller, arrives in Warsaw. In Warsaw, Wolf loses consciousness from hunger and ends up in a morgue. After lying there for three days, he regains consciousness.

Einstein offers Messing to open a laboratory to study his abilities. The hypnotist agrees with enthusiasm, but fate does not allow this dream to come true. The adventurer baron named Canaris is trying to persuade Wolf to cooperate: he wants to cash in on gambling with the help of telepathy. Messing refuses, in response Canaris goes on to threats.

With the help of Messing, Canaris wins a large sum, after which he leaves the illusionist alone. Dr. Abel returns home. Messing goes on a tour to America with the new impresario Peter Zellmeister.

Hitler, impressed by Messing's abilities, invites him to an audience and asks to look into the future of Germany. Wolf sees a great war and a swastika over Europe. In return for his pleasant prediction, Hitler promises to open a laboratory for Messing. But soon, speaking to the public together with Ganussen, Messing makes another prediction: the Third Reich will collapse if the war goes to the East.

Messing, who has not seen relatives for many years, is staying at his parents' house, entertaining his fellow villagers with interesting “tricks” - he is not going to return to concert life. His peace is disturbed by the Tselmeister, who arrived in Mount Calvary with a fabulous offer: the Polish count Czartoryski promises Messing a lot of money if he agrees to find the missing family brooch. The count is sure that someone from the servant stole the necklace.

A huge reward has been assigned for Messing's head - 250,000 Reichsmarks. Canaris finds a psychic in Mount Kalwaria, but lets him go in gratitude for the fact that he once helped him get rich. Messing's family is being stolen in the Warsaw ghetto. The telepath arrives in Warsaw hoping to help them, but again stumbles upon Canaris. This time, Canaris does not allow him to leave and delivers to the Gestapo. Kobak and Zellmeister are killed while trying to escape. Messing hypnotizes the guards and leaves the Gestapo. He is hiding from Warsaw and illegally crosses the border of the USSR.

Messing detained by Soviet border guards. He is mistaken for a spy. To save his life, Wolf demonstrates unusual abilities to the head of the outpost. The rumor about these events reaches Moscow. People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs Beria, interested in a strange foreigner, calls him to Moscow and, shocked by his skills, allows the psychic to work on the Soviet stage. With a new role "artist of the original genre" Messing arrives in Minsk.

At the request of the Minsk criminal investigation department, Messing helps to find the missing girl. The investigator offers him ongoing cooperation. But Wolf refuses - he loves his job too much. At one of the speeches, Messing predicts the outbreak of war. Soon he was taken from the hostel and brought to Moscow. Stalin, intrigued by rumors of a medium, wants to meet him. To experience Messing, Stalin gives him the task to come to the savings bank and get a gigantic amount without documents and invoices.

Messing returns to Minsk. There he learns that all fellow artists wrote denunciations to him, including his friend Ilya Bubentsov. Wolf forgives them. Bells commit suicide due to remorse. The war begins. The Philharmonic is evacuated to Novosibirsk. People go to Messing, they all want to learn about the fate of relatives and friends who have gone to the front. One of these visitors went to the front with her husband and five sons. Messing hesitates to tell her that they all died.

Messing marries his assistant Aida Rappoport. He travels with performances in Siberia, in factories in the rear. At one of these concerts, he predicts victory in the Battle of Stalingrad and in the war. The news of this reaches the Kremlin. Beria wants to destroy Messing, but Stalin stands up for his defense. By order of Joseph Vissarionovich Wolf transferred to Moscow. He meets 1943 in the capital. After the victory in Stalingrad, the Supreme Commander offers Messing the position of court soothsayer. Remembering the sad fate of Ganussen, the psychic finds the courage to refuse.

Stalin asks Messing about the fate of his son Jacob, who was captured by Germany. Messing predicts that the young man will die if his father does not agree to exchange him for Field Marshal Paulus. Even knowing this, Stalin does not go for an exchange, and this decision horrifies Wolf. Messing gives a gift to the front - gives the money earned to build a fighter. Before sending the aircraft to the front, he blesses the pilot, captain Kovalev. At the suggestion of Beria, Wolf gets a job in a reconnaissance school, where he tries to teach students hypnosis. However, he soon realizes that he cannot work there - the future of his students is too gloomy, which he sees inevitably.

Speaking in the rear, Messing meets a wounded lunatic soldier, in which he sees the beginnings of his abilities. He seeks the right to open his own laboratory, but meets only contemptuous ridicule from official science. At one of the plants, Messing sees a column of German prisoners, and in it - Canaris. Having lost control of himself, Wolf kills an old enemy with an effort of thought. After the war, Messing lives quietly in Moscow. One day, at a football match, he meets Vasily Stalin, the youngest son of a leader.

Messing predicts Vasily Stalin the victory of his team (CDCA) over Dynamo with a score of 3: 2. The enraptured Vasily does not let the diviner go a step away: Messing is forced to participate in all his adventures. Seeing in the future the death of Vasily together with a team of hockey players, Messing tells Stalin about this. He promises to cancel the ill-fated flight, but does not do this, but only orders that Vasily not fly on it. Hockey players die in a plane crash: so Stalin once again makes sure that Messing’s abilities are real.

Stalin is dying, but the authorities still need Messing. After the Twentieth Congress, Khrushchev is preparing to remove the leader’s body from the mausoleum, but, fearing popular unrest, causes a psychic to himself and asks him to make a correct prediction for the Soviet people. True to his gift, Messing refuses to go on forgery. In response, Khrushchev forbids him to speak in large cities. Messing comes the days of poverty and oblivion. In addition to all other adversities, Hades is seriously ill.

Messing takes care of the sick Aida, although she knows for sure the day and time of her death. Suddenly, he is again summoned to the Kremlin: at the most tense moment of the Caribbean crisis, fearing to make the wrong decision, Khrushchev overcomes his personal insult and asks for advice from the predictor. Psychic Khrushchev says that if the missiles are removed from Cuba, war will be avoided. Satisfied, Nikita Sergeyevich is finally ready to open the long-awaited laboratory for Messing, but the fulfillment of his desire was belated: Messing feels that he is already too old. Instead, he asks Khrushchev for permission to go abroad to Poland. He wants for the last time to see his native Mountain-Calvary.