Daniel Talich, who has experienced a personal drama, moves from Moscow to a quiet provincial town and gets a job as a librarian. However, he cannot find peace: he sees an open trash can in which the blonde's corpse lies. An operational police officer, Glikeria Davydova, arrives at the call, a girl from the category of those who ride a horse and enter a burning hut. After searching the trash can and the surrounding area, Glyceria states that there is no corpse. And the next day, Talic discovers an ad in a local newspaper: a girl has disappeared, very similar in description to the one he saw in the park. One caveat: the newspaper turned out to be twenty years old…