Employees of the prosecutor's office and criminal investigation department are investigating the mysterious disappearance of the chemist Solitov. But as often happens in the novels of E. Parnov, modernity is closely intertwined with history here. The roots of the crime go back to the distant past. Together with the heroes of the novel, readers will visit the court of Emperor Rudolf II, follow Napoleon to Egypt and Malta, and end up in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 19th century.