After the death of her second cousin, the historian Filipp Suvorin inherits a small, cozy house and, along with it, a housekeeper named Virineya—a silent girl who served the deceased for the last years. Filipp doesn’t see the point of keeping servants and plans to pay her off and let her go. But the very next day after the funeral, he finds a letter left by his grandfather, written shortly before his death. In it, the old man insists: Virineya must not be fired, because she is a navya—a creature from another world capable of fulfilling any wish of her master.