In Moscow, shocking events unfold: the police discover women with their throats cut one after another. None of the victims show signs of sexual assault—yet their organs have been removed and carefully arranged at the crime scene, forming some kind of “set,” as the criminal calls it. On the face or neck of each murdered woman there is a bloody kiss print—the signature of London’s Jack the Ripper. Could the serial killer have moved to Moscow? The answer to that question, of course, will have to be found by the official for special assignments Erast Petrovich Fandorin.