This is not the first year that teenage girls have been raped and killed in the Leningrad region. The head of the murder detection department, Lieutenant Colonel Chervontsev, perceives each such death as the death of his own daughter, since he himself is not destined to become a father. At the same time, Colonel General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the rank of deputy minister returns to the country the young Countess Maria Apraksina, who was once secretly taken from Russia and was close to the royal family, and demands to find her kidnappers. The search is entrusted to a careless employee, Major Shcherbakov, who first of all dreams of marrying the countess. The maniac is elusive, and the only way to lure him out is with live bait. Maria Apraksina agrees to help with this, but the girl has her own plans for the police officers, because she is going to return to Israel again, but not alone and with a briefcase full of money! The novel is based on real events.