A rich country house is the best place to wait out a blizzard and bad weather. This is what investigator Boris Veresen thinks, who, by the will of fate, ended up in the family nest of the Novikov family. But behind the external well-being and respectability there are many secrets hidden, and irreconcilable contradictions between family members lead to a bloody outcome. The head of the clan, the all-powerful Bella Romanovna, was shot, and only a person from her inner circle could have committed this crime. Who exactly? It is up to Veresny and his faithful cat Mandarin to solve this riddle.