The new action-packed novel by the popular science fiction writer Alexander Gromov is written in the genre of alternative history and “alternative geography”. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, Imperial Russia, a prosperous patriarchal state, occupies one of the leading places in world politics, arguing for global influence with Great Britain and France , Germany and other developed European powers. But there is simply no America - neither North nor South: from the western to the eastern borders of Eurasia one huge ocean stretches... Count Nikolai Nikolaevich Lopukhin, a secret agent of the Third Section, receives a personal order from the emperor to accompany the heir to the throne, heading on an official visit to Japan. During the voyage, Lopukhin manages to uncover an international conspiracy to eliminate the heir. Now all that remains is to thwart the plans of the attackers - on the high seas, without the support of the Russian fleet, under the guns of the Icelandic pirates, who have the latest invulnerable super battleship...