Former sailor Captain Guseyev was shot with a sawed-off shotgun almost in front of Colonel Gurov. Naturally, Gurov took charge of the case. The deeper Gurov and his partner, Colonel Kryachko, delve into the circumstances of the attempted assassination, the more questions arise. Who and why needed to shoot at an elderly peaceful man? Where did three crates of gold ingots go—those that Guseyev once transported on his ship? Why were his crew members imprisoned for ten years by a foreign power? Where did the burning interest in this case come from for a criminal authority called the Dead One?
Answers to these questions will be found when all the “interested parties” gather in the forest near an abandoned farmstead. That’s where, under a hail of automatic gunfire, Gurov and Kryachko will learn the whole truth…