1978. In Voronezh, several high-profile crimes are committed one after another. First, on the outskirts of the city, a group of men attacks two men and beats them to death with pieces of iron pipes. A few days later, the same gang murders three men at the checkpoint of an R&D institute. Finally, outside the theater building, unknown masked assailants open fire on a crowd of spectators leaving after a performance…
The senselessness and brutality of what happened outrage the public. The search for the bandits is assigned to a team led by Major of the Militia Alexander Deyatkin. Based on prints left on the pipe fragments, investigators manage to identify one of the killers—a repeat offender from Sverdlovsk—and later, his accomplices. Realizing that the operatives have them in their sights, the criminals decide to commit a new crime—unprecedented in its cruelty…