Anilin has uninvited guests with $2,000 on his desk which he barely managed to cover with a folder; Task Force KGB delays Anilin; Berkutov, the almost all-powerful director of the grocery store, begins his usual day with a detour.

Old criminal case files reveal George Berkutov was sentenced to six months in jail in 1959 over a matter of three rubles while working as a taxi driver, then got a job as a loader at the grocery store after being released.

V. Grishin, first secretary of the Moscow City Committee, tries to protect Berkutov and talks with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev about the situation; Gen. Kultakov pressures Skachko to get dirt on Berkutov.

Shirshov's visit to the store alarms Berkutov and Zoya; a wiretap is placed in the Uzbekistan restaurant office where Arimin likes to rest.

Using a torn blanket, Arimin hangs himself in jail; Masha is once again home alone waiting in vain for her husband.

Lida and Berkutov spend what might be their last happy and peaceful moments together; bugs are placed in the grocery store; Zoya tries to bribe the chairman of the Kostroma City Executive Committee.