The main character, an official of the 14th grade, Erast Petrovich Fandorin, serves as a clerk in the Detective Department and secretly dreams of becoming a detective. By the will of circumstances, he finds himself involved in the investigation of a mysterious suicide.

Based on Boris Akunin's novel 'Azazel' (English title 'The Winter Queen') set in Moscow in 1876. The novel started a long series quite popular in Russia. In 'Azazel' a young police officer - Erast Fandorin - investigates an odd suicide of some rich young man and finds a complex conspiracy, trying to take over most European countries - from Britain to Ottoman Empire - with the best intentions, of course.