Revenge is a hot dish

At the beginning of 1914, a change of leadership is being prepared in the Department of Police. The director suggests to the head of the criminal investigation department, Alexei Nikolayevich Lykov, to go on a trip for an inspection somewhere in the countryside to wait out the change of power. Lykov chooses Ryazan. His friend, General Taube, asks Alexei Nikolayevich to deliver a monetary gift to his former orderly Vasily Poludkin, who has settled in Ryazan. Fifty rubles for a retired orderly, who has taken a job as a guard at a factory, is a significant amount of money. But the gift brings trouble — the guard is murdered and robbed. The formal business trip takes on a new meaning. Lykov feels it is his duty to punish the killers of his friend's former orderly. He tracks down a certain Yegor Knyazev, nicknamed Knyaz — a man distinguished by ambition and cruelty. However, he is unable to apprehend him in Ryazan…