“At that very moment the door swung open with a roar. Now fate will pick me up and carry me on its stormy waves, not allowing me to come to my senses...” It was not for nothing that criminologist Vasily Gusev tried to transfer the case of the “tobacco-match queen” to the head of a private detective agency. The investigation, which at first glance concerns only one family, will soon reach a completely different level and affect those on whom the fate of the Empire depends...