In the late nineteenth century, Klyauzov’s disappearance from a Russian provincial estate draws investigator Chubikov and his young assistant Dyukovsky into a chain of suspicions and theories. The clues seem to point to a crime, yet the investigators’ self-confidence and impatient ambition often prevent them from seeing the facts. A Swedish match becomes a key object in the search, while the explanation of the case offers an occasion to reflect on human weaknesses, illusions, and the difficulty of discerning the truth.
