A talented chemist and competitive fencer, Vadim Denisov, is forced to earn money for his son’s treatment by taking part in no-rules fights. Fate keeps him safe in bloody bouts—but only so that one day, while fishing, he can throw… 1810. Unwillingly, Vadim becomes a guest of a provincial Russian landowner: a retired lieutenant colonel from the Belozyorsky Musketeer Regiment. Vadim has to pass himself off as a subject of the Russian Empire, but one born in America. How else could he explain his extraordinary knowledge for the 19th century? He has no intention of sitting idle and courting a charming landowner’s daughter. Unlike his hospitable hosts, Vadim knows very well that there are only two years left before Napoleon’s invasion…