The historical novel by the famous historian and writer Evgeniy Petrovich Karnovich (1824–1885) in the last century is dedicated to a secret page of Russian history - the “Lopukhin affair”, the “conspiracy” of the court ladies against Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. At the center of the story is a tangle of palace, political, and love intrigues, the victims of which were innocent people. Based on documentary sources, the novel reliably recreates the life, customs and destinies of people of the Elizabethan era.