In 2017, the quiet city of Serpukhov near Moscow finds itself in the center of public attention due to the bloody massacre of Dmitry Grachev over his young wife Margarita, who will be remembered for many years as "the girl whose husband cut off her hands with an axe."

Grachev's carefully designed revenge plan does not include murder — he calculates the time he will devote to torture and bullying, takes into account the minutes needed to get to the hospital. After all, if Rita dies, he will be waiting for a long time, and if he follows the plan, he will be convicted only for causing grievous bodily harm and he will meet his thirtieth birthday at large. The story of "Serpukhov's Othello" is flying around the media in an instant, and journalists begin to hunt for details: what forced Grachev to take such a step and is Rita as innocent as she wants to seem?