A sinister pattern can be traced in the wave of fires sweeping across Russia. Schools are burning, hospitals, nursing homes, kindergartens… Colonel Lev Gurov was the first to notice this strange selectivity and even predicted the date of the next fire. Gurov and his friend, Colonel Stanislav Kryachko, are convinced that this wasn’t without the evil will of a maniac arsonist. But the criminal— with devilish cunning—covers his tracks: witnesses die, evidence disappears. And yet, step by step, the investigators draw closer to the elusive “genius of fire,” but even they—seasoned operatives—are overcome with horror when they finally see him…