In the fall of 1998, during the election campaign for the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Deputy Director of the Agency for Investigative Journalism Nikolai Povzlo, by chance, encounters a number of strange events that, at first glance, are in no way connected with each other. But all these events in one way or another affect not only ordinary citizens, but also very influential politicians in St. Petersburg and Russia. At first, the journalist, who sensed a connection between the mysterious events, is guided by false logical premises, but then, with the help of FSB officers, he understands that all the strange and bloody crimes are lined up in an orderly and terrible chain, the name of which is terror.