EMERCOM captain Sergei Sniferov, nicknamed Sniff, learns that his brother Vadim, a military stalker, has not returned from his next trip to the New Zone. Sniff decides to go on a search, as he receives vague messages from his brother, transmitted using the found artifact. Sniff cannot get help from the scientific leadership and the commandant’s office, and he is left to go to the stalkers. But they do not trust the person from the outside, suspecting provocation. And yet, Sniff finds a guide - a very strange stalker Zanudu. In parallel with them, a film crew headed by the famous film producer Mikhailovsky is sent to the Zone, who by chance acquired a unique Compass that shows the way to a mysterious object - Proton. It was in those places that Captain Sniferov’s brother disappeared at one time...