The southern city is excited: an auditor is coming to see them - a charming lady from St. Petersburg, Baroness Amalia Korff. She is supposedly looking for the stolen jewels of the imperial house, but many consider this only a pretext: the governor, who quarreled with the minister and is now sure that they want to remove him, the police chief, who turned a blind eye to the unseemly affairs going on in the city... The local king of the underworld, Vissarion Khilkevich, is especially worried : he sees the Baroness’s arrival as a direct threat to his power and starts his own game...