The quiet office clerk Kоротков, who has worked reliably for many years in the match-issuing department, suddenly discovers that the familiar system is collapsing right before his eyes. With the departure of the former manager begins an endless chain of bureaucratic absurdities that quickly turns into a phantasmagoria: there are chases, mysterious doubles, and disturbing hints of the mystical. The ground of reality slips out from under the hero’s feet, and what seemed like harmless, everyday office confusion becomes a grim, almost diabolical obsession.