1887 The young zemstvo doctor Ivan Inozemtsev, in order to improve his shaky mental health after the misadventures on the Byulovka estate, moves to Paris, but even there he cannot get rid of the ghosts of the past and fears for the future. Despite his brilliant medical practice and lectures at a European university, Ivan Nestorovich understands that he will not achieve a quiet and serene life in the French capital. One of his students is the grandson of Lesseps himself, a brilliant engineer and businessman involved in the project of the era - the construction of the Panama Canal. But the student himself contacts the anarchists and causes the explosive device to detonate. And only Inozemtsev understands that the culprit is not the accidental mistake of the young chemist, but the Panama crisis and financial fraud around the Lesseps family...