Vladimir Arkhipov was his own master. He lived in a splendid bachelor flat with a faithful mastiff and had no intention of changing anything in his life. Everything happened against his will. The eccentric neighbor Lizaveta died and left him, as an inheritance, an entire apartment—and her adopted little orphan girl. As it turned out, the orphan was actually an adult, quite charming girl named Masha, who stunned the lonely Arkhipov’s imagination. But why didn’t the neighbor leave the apartment to her? Was it because members of the “Path to Joy” sect were claiming it, and they began besieging Masha right after Lizaveta’s death? Then, a half-brother from the provinces fell on Masha’s neck—and after that, both of them disappeared.
Concerned by their disappearance and by thoughts about the neighbor’s strange death, Arkhipov visits the “unfriendly apartment” and finds there the corpse of a jurist from the sect. How did he end up there? Who killed him? Could it have been Masha?