Inspector John Rebus, wildly irritated by the incorrect, in his opinion, conduct of the investigation, threw a mug of tea at his immediate superior. And all he achieved was that he was sent for re-education to a police college along with four other guilty law enforcement officers. In addition to soul-saving conversations, the penal prisoners will face a test: they must prove their professional suitability by solving the murder of a certain Rico Lomax - a vile type, whose death not a single person in the world regretted. Was this failed case deliberately chosen and did the management not want to rehabilitate, but, on the contrary, “fall asleep” to their restless colleagues?