Back in 1849, shortly before his death, the great Karl Bryullov gave his former classmate at the Academy of Arts Afanasy Pichugin a certain portrait that radically changed the fate of his descendants. Years passed, generations changed, but the portrait remained a blessing and a curse for the family... Today, the old artist Mikhail Andreevich Pichugin was found dead in his apartment in the center of St. Petersburg. What was it, murder or attempted robbery? How far back in time does the thread of this crime go? A young employee of the investigative department, Nikita Borisov, will have to reveal the Pichugin family secret...