In the quiet town of Primorsk, several chilling crimes take place. The victims were hacked to death with an ax; it looked like some kind of maniac was at work. All those killed were members of the sailors' families. And just recently, a young sailor, Anton Petryakov, secretly escaped from one ship. His friends claim that he just wanted to talk with his ex-fiancee, who was about to marry the famous bandit in the city, Maxim Perepelevsky. From the ship where Anton served, at the same time that same ax disappeared from the galley... All the evidence is against Petryakov, but people who know him closely say: he could never hurt a fly, let alone kill a man. The very culprit of the sailor's unauthorized departure from his place of service - Anton's ex-girlfriend Larisa - suddenly disappeared under more than strange circumstances. And a little later she was found... but the girl will no longer be able to tell the truth about her disappearance...