True case. True murders. Real injustice. This is an incredibly tense criminal drama about one of the most scandalous serial killer cases in USSR.
The year is 1984. A traffic police inspector disappears in the forests near Vitebsk. It seems that a particularly dangerous gang is operating in the area, robbing village shops. Leonid Ipatiev, an investigator for special cases, arrives from Minsk. While searching for a traffic cop in the forest, they find the corpse of a strangled young girl, Lena Rogovaya. Mikhail Shakhnovich, one of the most experienced local investigators, is assigned to the murder of Rogovaya. Ipatiev suspects that the disappearance of the traffic cop and the murder of the girl may be connected.…
Ipatiev invites Olga, a department store saleswoman, to the restaurant, whose brother is a witness in one of Shakhnovich's cases. Upon learning about this, Mikhail wants to recruit Olga as an informant, threatening to imprison his brother. Meanwhile, the corpse of a girl who was strangled in winter is found in an abandoned building. Ipatiev is trying to convince his superiors of the existence of a serial strangler.
Despite the opposition of Shakhnovich and his boss, Makarsky, Ipatiev returns to work at the Vitebsk Prosecutor's office. The local opera Mandrik and the expert Asya are working with him. Together they investigate the "capercaillie" — the strangulation of a girl with her own scythe. But this time Shakhnovich turns out to be right — it's just a "domestic thing", the murder of a friend on the grounds of jealousy.
Shakhnovich, blackmailing Olga, learns about Leonid's father's schizophrenia. Frightened, Olga begins to avoid Ipatiev, and her brother Vitalik prepares for a robbery with the gang. Meanwhile, Shakhnovich's daughter Sveta meets Larin, a retired criminologist, in the park, photographing a dead girl.…
The prosecutor's office is reaching out to the buyer for whom Larin took the pictures — this is a pervert civil servant, according to the description, ideally suited to the portrait of a maniac. However, while he is in the bullpen and testifying, another girl is found strangled in the field.
A murdered woman was found in a telephone booth near the hotel, from which the killer called Ipatiev. The caller to Ipatiev turns out to be Chebukin, an internationalist soldier who recently returned from Afghanistan. When Leonid gets on his trail, the killer takes him hostage.
At the disco, Nina, Sveta's friend, has a conflict with her ex-boyfriend. Nina is later found strangled. Ipatiev goes to the place of the girl's death. Shakhnovich allows Leonid to talk to his daughter…
The suspect Takmyrov dies during detention, Ipatiev has not been able to find out whether he was a strangler. Meanwhile, Asya can't stand it and secretly posts ads about the maniac around the city — perhaps this way at least someone will be able to warn about the danger and save. However, after reading the ads, the killer becomes enraged and starts killing several girls a day.
The search for the red "Zaporozhets" killer is unsuccessful, and Asya offers her candidacy to catch the strangler "on bait". She confesses to Mandrik and Ipatiev that she personally posted the ads around the city and feels guilty for provoking the strangler to new murders.
Graphologists manage to find a match — the strangler is identified. It turns out to be the one who was there all the time. The maniac tries to escape, but runs into Mandrik and Ipatiev.…
Investigator Ipatiev is transferred from Vitebsk to Moscow and involved in the case of the maniac Samoilov, who is undergoing treatment in a psychiatric clinic. Bazhenov's doctor, the son-in-law of Prosecutor General Nazarov, is ready to defend his doctoral thesis on the possibility of treating such patients. He tries to convince everyone that Samoilov is healthy and insists on his discharge, but his colleague Larisa Korzun is sure that the maniac cannot be released. Ipatiev does not believe in the healing of the cannibal killer either, but he does not have time to prove anything.: during transportation from the institute back to the mental hospital...
Bazhenov tries to prove to his father-in-law that Samoilov is safe, but he understands that the maniac was released precisely because of the actions of his son-in-law, who removed additional security. Bazhenov's wife Galina helps Ipatiev's wife Olga get a job as an administrator in a fashion studio to keep abreast of Samoilov's search and help her husband find the maniac first...
Samoilov is hiding with his friend Larisa, whom he met during treatment. Kowalski is in the hospital with a concussion. In a campsite house near the scene of the attack on Kovalsky, Ipatiev finds an unconscious girl tied to a bed. He takes her to the hospital, but on the way the girl disappears.…
The decapitated body of Murtazina's patient is found in the forest. It becomes clear that Samoilov committed the murder. Meanwhile, the Gavrilovs' daughter Yulia disappears from the chess tournament. At home, a photograph is found in her room, in which the face of one of the teachers is smeared. During a search of the teacher's house, the missing girl's hairpin is found.…
Samoilov calls Bazhenov. The maniac claims that he has taken the doctor's wife hostage and threatens to kill her if the psychiatrist refuses to help him and does not carry out his instructions. Yulia's friend, at Ipatiev's request, brings the ransom to the designated place, but Julia herself comes for the money, to the surprise of the operatives.…
A group of skiers on the ice of a frozen lake finds a corpse dusted with snow. The second terrible discovery is made by the operatives who arrived at the scene: next to the first victim lies the headless body of the missing psychiatric hospital nurse Zina.…
Ipatiev learns many family secrets of the Gavrilovs, which can help to find the killer who keeps the family in fear. Lyudmila's former fiance and Gavrilov's young mistress Zoya come to the attention of the investigation. Meanwhile, experts are able to establish that the pistol confiscated from Gavrilov previously belonged to an operative and was lost during the arrest of bandits who attacked Foreign Ministry employees during a country party.
Thanks to the surveillance installed on Zoya, it is possible to establish that she is engaged in prostitution at Intourist. While Ipatiev is trying to figure out how threats to Gavrilov and Zoya's occupation might be related, Kovalsky travels to Leningrad, from where a letter was sent to Samoilov's sister in Krasnodar. But it soon becomes obvious: Samoilov is not in the city — a new victim of the maniac has been found in the Moscow region.
Gavrilov finds a box near his car. Inside is Zoya's wig, a boot with a severed foot and a note demanding to bring ten thousand to the specified place, otherwise his daughter will be the next victim. Meanwhile, Samoilov is trying to get himself antibiotics. He turns to Bazhenov again, demanding to treat his wound and provide him with medicines. The psychiatrist, again without telling anyone anything, goes to meet the maniac with pills soaked in poison.
Zoya's body is found outside the city. Judging by the nature of the injuries and the intact internal organs, she was not killed by Samoilov. Gavrilov confesses to stealing salary money, but the organized operation to transfer the ransom is disrupted. Bazhenov confesses to his father-in-law that Samoilov had his wife all this time. According to the dates and times of telephone conversations with the maniac, it is possible to establish the place from where he called.
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