A strange and terrible world... Here the population is divided into citizens and residents, into nobles who live by the laws of honor and have the right to fight a duel, and powerless commoners. Here Constantinople has been part of the Russian Empire for many centuries, but wars are not fought by soldiers , and analysts. Distant future? Parallel reality? Nikita Volkov, a citizen and nobleman, is used to considering this world his own. But is this really so?..