The first part of the famous novel by Sergei Alekseev, dedicated to the legends of the mysterious “Kerzhaks” - schismatic Old Believers living in the remote Siberian taiga, isolated from civilization. This is a detective-adventure story about a young successful geologist who discovered an entire gold mine in the floodplain of the Karagach River (northern Altai), but lost the woman with whom he wanted to connect his life. She was kidnapped by those same Kerzhaks right from under his nose. Rushing to find her, the hero becomes involved in the great secret of the Old Believers - about the existence of the ancient book of predictions “Stovest”. Together with the hero, the reader will walk tens of kilometers of the taiga, learn to survive in the wild, compete with the Kerzhaks in the ability to hide and track down the enemy, and encounter representatives totalitarian sect “Cedars of the Family”, learns incredible details of the history and life of Russian Old Believers. The novel blurs the line between reality and fiction. Miracles become part of everyday life. The skillfully written plot of the novel grabs the reader and does not let go until the very end.