Spring of 1889. After the death of his teacher, Pavel Afanasyevich Blagovo, Alexey Lykov goes on a business trip. In Japan, the bodies of three escaped Russian convicts are found—by documents, they still remain listed as prisoners in Sakhalin prisons. There are suspicions that their escape was organized by the Japanese mafia—yakuza. To find answers to all questions, Lykov travels to Sakhalin on a secret mission…