When in the capital of the Russian Empire, robbers almost stabbed to death the chief railway inspector and actual state councilor Gorchakov, it became clear that the robbers demanded the closest attention and cruel punishment. And almost immediately a series of eerie atrocities occurred, spurring the detective agencies. Thefts, arson, bloodshed - and all the evidence points to one man at the center of the criminal web. The head of the St. Petersburg criminal police, court councilor Vladimir Gavrilovich Filippov, personally took up the investigation. However, fate unfolded a series of events in a completely unpredictable way...