Significant letters threatening the merchant Nikodim Kretov, the arson of his barge, the robbery of convoys and a riot at a factory in the taiga Tesinsk - all indicate that someone really wants to quarrel between the Kretov brothers. After all, suspicion immediately falls on the younger one, Mikhail Kretov, who allegedly was seen during the arson of the steamer Amur and the warehouses at the plant. But Mikhail has an iron-clad alibi. And detective police agent Alexey Polyakov, who arrived in Tesinsk under the guise of a mining engineer, can confirm this alibi. During the warehouse fire, he was in the merchant’s house along with a local teacher and his niece Masha, who was wounded by a crossbow arrow, clearly intended for Mikhail.. And Alexey himself Before that, I was caught in a landslide, obviously set up by someone. In all this, someone’s skillful hand is visible...