In Cold War Soviet Union, three mutilated bodies are discovered in Moscow’s Gorky Park. The skin on the victims’ faces and fingertips was stripped away to conceal their identities, and militsiya police officer Arkady Renko concludes the Committee for State Security of the Soviet Union (KGB) is responsible for the executions. He grudgingly offers to turn the case over to his nemesis, Major Pribluda, but the corrupt KGB agent declines to accept responsibility for the investigation. Studying the victims’ clothes, Renko discovers the female is wearing ice skates that belong to a Siberian woman named Irina Asanova. When he tells Irina about the murders, she does not believe him and refuses to identify her friend. Dental analysis reveals that one of the two male victims was an American, and a ballistics report traces the bullets to a KGB-issued pistol, but the case remains impenetrable and Renko is convinced he is being set up by the KGB. Fearing for his life, Renko accepts an invitation to the dacha of Chief Prosecutor Iamskoy, where he is surprised to see Irina Asanova with an American fur trafficker named Jack Osborne. The gentleman is rumored to have an interest in Russian sables, whose pelts are worth a fortune. However, the Soviets control an international monopoly on the animals, and do not let them out of the country. Meeting Prosecutor Iamskoy, Renko begs to be relieved from the investigation, but the attorney refuses to transfer the case to the KGB and promises to protect the young officer. Back in Moscow, Renko orders the coroner to decapitate the corpses and takes the heads to an anatomical model-maker, Professor Andreev, who begins to reconstruct the victims’ faces. Sometime later, Renko is attacked by a stranger and follows his pursuer to a hotel, where he learns that his assailant, William Kirwill, is an American police detective who is conducting an investigation of his own. Kirwill’s brother, James, was one of the Gorky Park victims as was his friend, Valerya Davidova, and her lover, Kostia Borodin. All three had ties to Jack Osborne, but William Kirwill is not forthcoming with additional information and refuses to join forces with Renko. The Russian policeman later finds a KGB informant, Theo Golodkin, and threatens to throw him out a window. Golodkin confesses that Osborne hired the youths to build a wooden chest and claims to have the crate in his apartment, but when an officer takes him home to retrieve it, both men are killed in the building stairwell. Believing the KGB has set him up yet again, Renko reconvenes with Prosecutor Iamskoy and tells him about Osborne’s connection to the Gorky Park executions. Iamsky is eager to keep Renko on the case and reveals the name of Osborne’s hotel as a lead. There, Renko watches from afar as Irina Asanova confronts Osborne about her missing friends, and the American promises they have been given asylum in the U.S. As Irina walks home, she is followed by an assassin who attempts to inject her with a lethal drug, but Renko prevents the attack. When the pursuer pins Renko to the ground, William Kirwill, the American detective, comes to his rescue and finally agrees to help with the investigation. Renko nurses Irina back to health at his apartment and they become lovers, but she remains uncooperative, insisting she must protect her friends’ newfound freedom. One day, Kirwill takes Renko to the barn in which the Gorky Park victims built Osborne’s crate, and they discover six live sables. The men conclude that Osborne planned to hide the sables in the crate and smuggle them into the U.S. for breeding, effectively demolishing the Soviet monopoly and potentially bankrupting the country. The three youths became a liability in the scheme. Since Irina is the only person who can confirm the story, Renko brings her to the barn and narrates the events that led up to her friends’ murders. When Irina insists they are still alive, Renko wields the reconstructed head of her friend, Valerya. Traumatized and irate, Irina finally confesses that Osborne promised to give Valerya and Kostia asylum in the West in return for six live sables, and James Kirwill helped broker the deal. As Irina runs, Renko reunites with Detective Kirwill to retrieve the reconstructed head of Kirwill’s brother, James. However, a KGB agent steals the head and they follow him to Prosecutor Iamskoy’s dacha, where Iamskoy and Osborne destroy the evidence. Sometime later, in Moscow, Renko holds Iamskoy at gunpoint, demanding a confession. Unaware he is being tape-recorded, Iamskoy explains that he was blackmailing Osborne, and the American paid a fortune for the sables’ safe passage. When Iamskoy bribes Renko to keep quiet, Renko reveals his tape recorder and Iamskoy lunges for his gun, but the weapon misfires and kills the prosecutor. Renko uses his evidence to inform the KGB of Osborne’s sables, and Major Pribluda orders him to follow the American to Stockholm, Sweden. There, Osborne drives Renko to his apartment, and reveals that Irina is in his care. The girl explains that she went to Osborne after leaving the barn, and he promised her political asylum in return for sex. Renko is disgusted by the betrayal, but Irina confesses that she brokered a deal with the KGB to secure Renko’s freedom, too. Osborne agreed to give back the six sables in return for Irina and Renko’s liberation from the Soviet Union because he is secretly harboring six additional animals, and comes away from the deal at no cost. Although Renko agrees to negotiate with the KGB, he later tells Kirwill that the trade will end in bloodshed. The next day, Renko drives to a remote barn with Major Pribluda and two KGB agents for their exchange with Osborne. Kirwill, who secretly arrived at the scene early to protect his friend, has already been killed. Wielding a shotgun and six dead sables, Osborne announces that he disemboweled Kirwill and orders KGB agents to give up their weapons. When Pribluda agrees, Renko realizes he is a traitor, and warns the others that Osborne is not to be trusted. As the two KGB agents run away, Osborne kills one man and Pribluda shoots the other. Irina and Renko dodge into the woods. Although Pribluda defended Osborne, the fur trader realizes their alliance is a ruse and kills the Soviet commander. With Pribluda dead, Renko snatches a gun from a fallen comrade, runs back toward the barn, and hides behind the cages of the six remaining live sables. However, Irina appears and Osborne threatens to murder her unless Renko surrenders. Stepping into the line of fire, Renko believes he will be shot, but Irina reveals a hidden weapon of her own and kills Osborne. Irina rejoices that she and Renko are now “free,” but Renko explains he must return to Moscow. He, too, made a secret deal with the KGB, and promised to kill Osborne and the sables in return for Irina’s freedom. If Renko defects with Irina, and defies his vow to return to duty, they will be always be hunted by the KGB. As the lovers bid each other farewell, Renko promises their separation will not be indefinite.