影片描写在莫斯科某杂剧剧院第十五个演出年度的最后一次演出会上，天才的讽刺喜剧演员马克西莫夫又一次表现了他的惊人的才华:他在一瞬间连续表演了几个片断，尖锐地讽刺了夸夸其谈自以为是的人、棒子式的否定一切的文艺批评家、抄袭他人作品的诗人和音乐家。剧院的节目演完之后，马克西莫夫和他的妻子演员列芙阔耶瓦匆忙地上了汽车，奔火车站去了……

It is the New Year's Eve and the employees of an Economics Institute are ready with their annual New Year's entertainment program. It includes a lot of dancing and singing, jazz band performance and even magic tricks. Suddenly, an announcement is made that a new director has been elected and that he is arriving shortly. Comrade Ogurtsov arrives in time to review and disapprove of the scheduled entertainment. To him, holiday fun has a different meaning. He imagines speakers reading annual reports to show the Institute's progress over the year, and, perhaps, a bit of serious music, something from the Classics, played by the Veterans' Orchestra. Obviously, no one wants to change the program a few hours before the show, much less to replace it with something so boring! Now everyone has to team up in order to prevent Ogurtsov from getting to the stage. As some of them trap Ogurtsov one way or another, others perform their scheduled pieces and celebrate New Year's Eve.