1927 The fighting of the civil war has died down, but in the far corners of Central Asia shots still continue to be heard and blood flows. It is there that Vadim Arsenyev, an employee of a special group of the OGPU, which investigates the most inexplicable phenomena, goes on a deadly business trip under the guise of a journalist. A mysterious manuscript leads him through a sultry desert, teeming with gangs of Basmachi, further and further from civilization - to the ruins of an ancient fortress, which contains what gives a person power over the whole world. What awaits the main character: wealth, love or death, if over Is the ominous ghost of the great prophet Zoroaster hovering over the heads of all expedition members?