Forty days have passed since the bandits shot dead General Vorontsov's old friend, Colonel of the KGB Alexander Lukov, in his apartment. Vorontsov invites the senior investigator Valin to the funeral and asks him to read the latest notebook of memories from Zagorsky. ...The commander of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes, Lieutenant General Tolmachev, requests Zagorsky's assistance in investigating a strange case related to archaeological excavations, as an old acquaintance. The Baltic German Bron Roman von Shtorn went on an expedition to the Tsaritsyn district, to the village of Rozumikhino. During the excavations, his Estonian worker Magnus Saar goes missing. Later, fragments of his bloodied clothing are found on the shore of a local forest lake. Gendarme investigator Persefonov, who arrived to investigate the case, also disappears without a trace after some time.
