During Perestroika times, a retired KGB colonel makes good use of his list of people who used to collaborate with the KGB by blackmailing them to do his bidding. But there are bigger sharks around – the local mafia, who has its own ideas of how to exploit the "poor fish" who'd swallowed the KGB's hook. One of them, however, wants to destroy the archives and will thwart the mafia's plans.