Slippery ice. A rush of traffic. A dog that suddenly bolts out from somewhere. You yank the wheel, and your life makes a sharp turn you can’t predict. Anastasia Shakhova, after a divorce, unexpectedly for everyone—even for herself—leaves Moscow to live in a small town, Kirillov. She lives quietly, continuing the work of the local herbalist and fortune-teller, from whom she inherited the house; she works as a feldsher in the local hospital—an ordinary gray life. Who is she interesting to? It turns out to many. Starting with an investigator from the major crimes unit who questions her about a body found… and ending with the new wife of her ex-husband. But all of this would be nothing—if only, at night, strange things didn’t happen in quiet Kirillov: shadows thicken under the old bridge over the ravine, and Anastasia more and more often has to open a mysterious notebook with a short title—“Creatures”…