Makarka the murderer once again escapes from justice and disappears. But soon a certain wealthy merchant Kulikov appears in St. Petersburg, who opens a drinking establishment... Where Kulikov is, there is intrigue, robbery, blackmail, murder... Even the most cruel representatives of the criminal world give in to him. Fierce atrocities, vices, and debauchery accompany the life of the degraded inhabitants of the capital's slums... The novel by the famous St. Petersburg writer Nikolai Zhivotov (1858–1900) describes the cruel secrets of the criminal world of St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century.