The end of the 19th century. A terrible crime occurs in the small town of N: the entire Okhapkin family is murdered. Ivan Khvatov, a seasoned police officer with a military background who was about to retire, takes up the case. During the investigation, he discovers that the motive for the murder was a large sum of money obtained from the sale of a farmstead. Gathering clues, police officer Khvatov traces the trail to a respected aristocrat, Count Dobuzhinskiy, who is mired in gambling debt. But Countess Olga, his sister, fundamentally disagrees with the idea that her brother is the killer and launches her own investigation to uncover the truth. While Olga was initially interested in preserving her brother's good name, her interest soon shifts to Khvatov himself and the other cases he is investigating.