1892 Zemstvo doctor Ivan Inozemtsev is sent to the capital of the Turkestan General Government - Tashkent. But Inozemtsev fails to get to his new place of service: he is kidnapped by a gang of robbers led by the insidious Basmach Yulbars, who has tamed a real tiger. Rumors and legends about the raids of Yulbars' gang circulate throughout the region. He is cruel and merciless, smart and unusually cunning, so why did he need an ordinary zemstvo doctor, Ivan Inozemtsev, among the oases and mirages of the desert? And how can he now cope with a new scourge - a cholera epidemic that is plaguing local residents?..