The book tells about the seventh much-publicized case of the well-known judicial investigator Ivan Fyodorovich Volovtsov. A senior bailiff of the Moscow Court Chamber, Shchelkunov, suddenly disappears without a trace. No one from his closest circle has any idea where he went. On the contrary, everyone insists that recently the missing man was in high spirits: he joked a lot, was cheerful, and Shchelkunov openly hinted that soon serious changes would happen in his life—perhaps he would leave his old bachelor habits and finally get married.
But Ivan Volovtsov has solid reasons to believe that Shchelkunov was murdered, and that his body was carefully hidden.