A personal motive leads Moscow police captain Novikov to the province to investigate two seemingly unrelated crimes. Novikov's favorite journalist Eva drowned while swimming in a lake in a remote village in the Pskov region. Her death is recognized as an accident, but Victor believes that she was massacred by those involved in her regular investigation. At the same time, in the vicinity of the village committed a daring raid on the car of a well-known Pskov businessman. The car was delivering a large sum of cash to the settlement. The cashier and two guards accompanying the valuable cargo were killed, and 15 million rubles disappeared without a trace. Investigating the robbery, Novikov realizes that the raid on the cashier and Eva's death are connected. Major Kazantsev, head of the local police department, becomes Novikov's assistant, but his goal is not only to find and punish those responsible, but also to preserve the fragile peace between the villagers and the local Roma community.