In the near future, a terrible natural disaster befalls Novosibirsk - a mysterious seismic cataclysm turns the city into a giant anomalous zone, where completely inexplicable and deadly phenomena begin to occur. The scientific expedition of Academician Efremov, sent towards the unknown, fails: those of its participants who were lucky enough to return back lost their minds, and the leader of the expedition himself disappeared without a trace in the dilapidated and extinct Novosibirsk. Accidentally drawn into this story, retired army captain Tikhon Rokotov is now the only one who is able to find traces of the disappeared scientist and find out what kind of monstrous attack befell his hometown.