Elena Khaetskaya's new novel is an attempt to follow in the footsteps of Lieutenant Michel Lermontov, whose life and death left descendants with many mysteries. Why is his work so heterogeneous? Why did the seconds of his duel lie so unanimously during the investigation? What kind of body was seen at the foot of Mashuk a day after the duel, if the murdered lieutenant was immediately taken to Pyatigorsk? Who really was this young man, the poet Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov?