XVIII century. Thomas de Villeneuve (1715–1794), who arrived in Russia with bright hopes, was arrested as a secret spy. But the “Bironovism” soon ends, and de Villeneuve becomes a lieutenant in the Russian army. In the war against Prussia, he receives an order and the rank of major. He is sent to serve... in Altai. Here, ten years later, already with the rank of colonel, de Villeneuve becomes commandant of the city of Tomsk. A brave officer, a public figure, an intelligent official who cared about his assigned work, a natural scientist, an alchemist who dreamed of the elixir of youth and the philosopher’s stone, until the end of his years he remained a mentally sensitive, romantic person, who carried throughout his life a high feeling of love for a simple Russian serf girl. , with whom he barely had time to meet in his youth. The novel “Adam’s Rib” tells how a noble young man, who studied abroad and became the patriarch’s steward in his homeland, fell into disgrace in 1644, but did not want to become a rumor - a spy among the golden youth. So Grigory Pleshcheev-Podrez ended up in the distant Siberian city of Tomsk, which had just been built in the remote taiga on a steep mountain near a deep river...