Lieutenant Rzhevsky and the Lady with the Salt Shaker

The hero of this story is Lieutenant Rzhevsky—a character from jokes, a charming boor, with whom rumor credits an affair with Natasha Rostova and… with another one thousand and one women.

In December 1825, Lieutenant Alexander Rzhevsky ends up in Tver, where he gets involved in a “dangerous relationship” with a fateful beauty and nearly becomes a participant in the Decembrists’ uprising, as well as an accomplice in a criminal offense. To get out of this mess, you need a clear head—but the trouble is, at the most inappropriate moments Rzhevsky loses the ability to think and reason, especially when he sees women’s charms… If it weren’t for the goddess Fortuna, the lieutenant could easily have become a pawn in someone else’s game and ended up in Siberian penal servitude.