Autumn 1870. After reading a chapter from the novel “The Killer from the Past,” Alexandra Ilyinichna Tarusova unexpectedly learns that the crime described in it—the murder of a cab driver and his mistress—really happened. But when? Before the newspaper comes out or after? How does the author of the novel Andrei Guravitsky know so many details? After all, even the investigator did not figure them out right away. Is Ivan Strizhnev, who was detained by the police, guilty or, as stated in the novel, was the real killer planted the evidence against him? If so, then, according to the new science of optography, his image should be imprinted in the eyes of the victim. And Alexandra Ilyinichna decides to look into them...