Colonel Ostankovich, the commander of a special police department in St Petersburg, and the man who put his honesty at stake by swearing that under his command not an item will get lost in the Hermitage, receives a report of a short alarm failure in the Hermitage. He suspects that something happened. To avoid losing his reputation, he contacts Maxim Durand through Larisa Svetlova. Due to his past, Maxim is at his disposal and has to help him.