Professor Colin Stirle, an Englishman working in Tokyo, is accused of murdering his student. Some time later, an unknown person takes hostages. He does not make any demands and does not make contact with the police. Using social networks, the criminal invites the public to play a sinister game - to vote on the Internet for one of the hostages. Moreover, the one who receives the minimum number of votes will die. The police and intelligence services do not believe in the seriousness of the criminal’s intentions. However, when the first corpse appears, they have to admit that this is not a game or a stupid joke. Unexpectedly, these two cases turn out to be connected... The book contains obscene language.