Nizovye. Oka. The very north of the Slavs. Rurik is still a good hundred years away. Here, far from the capital, the decisive battle for power in the principality of the Vyatichi takes place. The old prince is dying, there are two contenders - his young wife and nephew, the heir to power according to all family laws. But the tribal laws are shaking. The forces are equal, the victory will be won by the one on whose side the Ponizovsky militia will be. The fight is deadly. For the princess stands the prince's pagan temple - New Pogost, led by the sorcerer Bobich, for the prince - the destroyed, but unfinished ancestral temple - Bolotny Pogost with the witch Potvora and her granddaughter Lelya...