June 1894. Alexey Lykov has been retired for the second year now. He is now a private citizen and manages his estate’s affairs. His friend and steward Jaan Titus helps him. Together, the two timber industrialists traveled to Turkestan. Large-scale railway construction is underway there, sleepers are needed, and there is little local timber. There is an opportunity to sign a very profitable contract. But in the region everything is run by the military, and procurement is handled by the quartermasters of the Turkestan Military District. They demand bribes.
Lykov and Titus arrive in Tashkent, the capital of the region, and try to come to terms with the bribetakers in uniform. They ask an outrageous price… The friends are already preparing to go home empty-handed when suddenly they find themselves drawn into bloody events. Several Russians have been killed amid the hostility of the native population toward infidels. The local police, made up of line officers, are powerless. The former detectives, recalling their old skills, begin their investigation…