The senior investigator of the Investigative Committee, Orest Volin, is invited to provide consultations in France. Here, on the border with Italy, in the resort town of La-Rosier, they discover the body of an unknown man—killed in a very exotic way. The method itself is not fully understood, but the consequences are such that the corpse has been destroyed inside and out. There are no documents or a phone found on the deceased. During the examination, traces of a tattoo that has been crossed out are found on his body. The case lead, Irène Belyeu, identifies some letters as Russian, and then asks Volin for help, assuming the nameless victim might have been Russian by origin.