In the novel “The Secret of the Old Pirate” by Galina Pavlova, everyday reality and mysticism go hand in hand. The life of young designer Marina Antonyuk unexpectedly throws up a number of surprises for her: the owner of the apartment the girl rented breaks her contract. However, fate presents the girl with an unexpected gift - she inherits an old house, built before the revolution. The joy of a happy resolution of the housing issue does not last long. Instead of the noble building depicted in the photograph, yellowed by time, the heroine gets a dilapidated building that requires urgent repairs, and instead of cozy loneliness, she gets a strange tenant and... a ghost who stubbornly tries to communicate with her at night. But if Marina still somehow agrees to come to terms with these neighbors, then a series of mysterious incidents and a mummified corpse in the basement already require an urgent solution... During the investigation, historical discoveries and romantic encounters await the heroine, and the solution turns out to be unexpected.