During the investigation into a student’s death, Detective Ardov comes up against the scientist-alchemist Gorsky, who has fallen out of favor after revealing the secret of turning metals into gold.
Nevertheless, Gorsky dies under strange circumstances, and his secret formula ends up in the hands of criminals who begin blackmailing the government with the threat of collapsing the national currency.
There is a danger that the Russian economy may teeter on the brink of collapse. The chief over-police assigns Ardov the task of finding out whether the lost formula really can produce cheap gold, because the fate of the empire depends on it.