For the first time in Russian - the most paradoxical of modern English bestsellers, a large-scale postmodern stylization of a Victorian novel, a magnificent debut of the star of the “new Scottish revival” Charles Palliser, already known to domestic readers for his novel “Unburied.” From early childhood, John Huffam was forced to rack his brains, what kind of unknown sinister force is pursuing him and his mother, threatening their very lives. The answer lies in a document that provoked greed, hatred, murder and madness, a document that determined the fate of several generations of five families and set the course of John's life. A flow obeying the mysterious symbol of five - the quincunx.