After the death of her husband, Alexandra Korzukhina tries to stay afloat by restoring paintings. One of her clients, a well-known collector, returns to Alexandra with a claim: instead of the original, he was given a forgery after the restoration work! The painting is very valuable - it is by the painter Kalmikov, who, like Vasnetsov, worked in the neo-Russian style, depicting sinister characters from Russian fairy tales and epics.