The novel takes place at the end of the 18th century, during the reign of Paul I. The familiar image of the emperor—an imbecilic soldier and a half-crazed despot obsessed with drills and reviews, suspicious and bloodthirsty—falls apart from the very first pages of the book. On the one hand, he is a dreamer, a gentle and loving husband and father. On the other, an unbalanced, despotic man whose power knows no bounds; his fits of rage and anger are unpredictable. Court intrigues, sincere love and cold calculation, the plot against Emperor Paul and his death—this is what the engaging account of the well-known historian, writer, and publicist Nikolai Alexandrovich Engelhardt tells.