The brilliant detective Erast Fandorin is once again thrown into the thick of events—this time not only of a detective, but also a romantic kind. A love affair, turning into a legitimate marriage, inevitably pulls Erast Petrovich into a whirlpool of criminal passions. A brewing rift in family life becomes the starting point for a new investigation.
A marital trip coincides with an unprecedented robbery committed on a connecting train. Fate seems to deliver Fandorin to the crime scene at just the right moment— the chief of the railway gendarmerie is already there. Recognizing the detective, the gendarme persuades him to investigate the case. Now the details of the daring attack must be uncovered by Erast Petrovich—and hardly anyone could do it better.