Winter Petersburg at the end of the 19th century. Snowy streets, cab drivers, the slum Apraksin Dvor, ragamuffins and criminals sitting in its smoky and eerie taverns... These are the scenery. And in the center of them is General Kornievich, killed in his own home. The terrible crime is covered with the cold breath of autocratic Russia. Frosty darkness reliably keeps the villainous secret. How to solve it, if the first murder is followed by a series of bloody daring and one after another, respectable and respected people from the general’s entourage are given up to violent death? Private detective Matvey Golovatsky undertook to unravel the gloomy puzzle. Wipe your pince-nez, detective! Look around you - don't you feel a deathly cold from the people closest to you, whom you love so much?