A novel about the detective Alexey Lykov and his friends. The athletic and intellectual Lykov continues to head the investigation in Nizhny Novgorod. After distinguishing himself in the arrest of a gang of Polish safe-crackers, Alexey receives a summons to the capital.
The head of the police department assigns the young titular adviser to guard the person of the State Ruler. The elusive “People’s Will” has sentenced the emperor to death, and a real hunt is announced for Alexander II. The terrorists hired criminals to carry out the sentence. Lykov, his colleague and friend, the State Councillor Pavel Afanasyevich Blagovo, and the best operative of the Russian military intelligence, Rotmistr Taube, risking their lives try to shield the emperor from assassination…