Revenge is a Dish Best Served Hot

In early 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 business trip somewhere to 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 found a job as a watchman at a factory is a lot of money. But the gift brings trouble — the watchman is murdered and robbed. The formal business trip takes on a new meaning. Lykov feels it is his duty to punish the murderers of his friend's former orderly. He traces a certain Yegor Knyazev, nicknamed Knyaz — a man known for his ambition and cruelty. However, he is unable to apprehend him in Ryazan…