As a result of a chain of accidents, the main character receives a box with damaged negatives of a professional photographer who died in a car accident. And, since he, in turn, was interested in photography, he became curious: “Why did he keep this trash? Typical mistakes that are of no interest." Solving this mystery with the help of his knowledge of photography, he comes to the conclusion that the photographer was a blackmailer, and the box is a skillfully encrypted repository of incriminating evidence. The hero faces a dilemma: restore justice, expose the criminals - destroy the life of the wife of the deceased and his son (their father and husband will be declared a scoundrel) or keep everything secret. But his banal human curiosity plays a trick on him - the secret, contrary to his wishes, becomes known to criminals.