An atmospheric historical detective story with overtones of psychological drama: the past here doesn’t disappear without a trace, and any little detail can become either a solution—or a trap.
In search of quiet and a break from everything, Count Nikolay Alekseevich Vislotsky leaves for his ancestral Belopolie, hoping to hide from the stifling Moscow heat and the intrusive attention of Princess Ragozina. But the long-awaited calm shatters when a wandering storyteller appears at the estate—and soon one of his dark tales begins to come true, turning into a tragedy.
The count has to step into the investigation, where beneath the respectable prosperity of the neighboring estates lie old feuds, deception, and an unforgiven guilt. Yet what troubles him is not only other people’s secrets: in his own home, he finds several identical portraits of his late father, and the barely noticeable differences between them look like a carefully concealed, encrypted message.
Step by step, untangling the knot, Vislotsky realizes that the events in Belopolie are far more closely connected to the past of his family than he could have imagined. And it seems someone will do everything to ensure the truth never comes to light.