A strange event attracted the attention of operatives in post-war Pskov. In broad daylight in a city park, a pensioner recognized a passing policeman as a disguised fascist executioner and tried to detain him. The policeman managed to escape, and the pensioner died on the spot from a heart attack. The detectives are perplexed: has the dangerous war criminal, whom they have been looking for for several years now, shown up in their city? The investigation was entrusted to Captain Pavel Zverev, nicknamed “The Beast.” The fearless opera has dozens of solved crimes to his credit. But this time he will have to fight not with frostbitten criminals, but with a career SS officer, whose hands are up to his elbows in blood...