The second part of a diptych about the criminal activities of the Soviet state security organs. The novel takes place at the end of the 1970s, interwoven with memories of the past of a certain KGB colonel Pavel Kvatkin, who by the will of fate becomes involved in the sadly notorious “Doctors’ Plot.” After helping arrest Beria and then retiring, Kvatkin hopes that the crimes he committed have been forgotten. But people appear who are ready to demand payment from the executioner and sadist for everything completely evil he did…