The second Russian-Turkish war continues, and Austria is Russia's ally. Her Emperor Joseph II is a longtime friend and like-minded person of Catherine the Great. By order of the empress, His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin-Tauride sends his beloved, experienced intelligence agent Anastasia Arzhanova, to the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. She travels under a diplomatic “roof” and must win the trust of the emperor, but Joseph II dies. After his death, Austria violates its allied obligations to Russia and concludes a separate peace with Turkey. A copy of this international convention with secret paragraphs falls into the hands of Arzhanova... The novel is the fifth book in a series telling about the adventures of the secret agent of the Empress Anastasia Arzhanova, a Kursk noblewoman.