There is a great Time of Troubles in the Moscow kingdom, people are dying, the Polish lords are locked in the Kremlin, the first militia turned out to be powerless against the invaders. And in Vologda, where many rich merchants have fled, a conspiracy is brewing in favor of English businessmen who want to profit from someone else’s misfortune. And not only to make money, but to place his candidate on the Russian throne. Guessing that something wrong is going on there, Prince Pozharsky sends a reliable person to Vologda to find out what intrigues the merchants are plotting and what secrets are kept at the local Rope Yard. And the first task is to get the message that the Moscow princes and boyars secretly sent to the English king...