Two young women, pupils of the orphanage, were killed. The body of each unfortunate woman was slowly pierced eight times with a thin object, and not metal. What else the killer did with the corpses is impossible to describe without shuddering. Senior lieutenant of the police investigative department Valery Samsonov will have to identify and neutralize the maniac. The investigation leads him to a shelter, where the beaten and mutilated (to put it mildly) psychologist Merkalsky is found. Then the maniac kills the shelter worker Irtemiev, who kept the lists of adoptive parents. The detective literally follows the warm bloody trail that has not yet cooled down, but cannot detain the ripper or understand the motives for his monstrous crimes...