Even in the farthest corner, there is always its own “quiet pool,” where sins and vices swim. Not everyone is given the chance to overcome them—yet everyone can kill them within themselves… or in someone else. Major Svyatoslav Sokolov has been appointed deputy head of the local Internal Affairs Department in a distant Siberian town. He hasn’t even had time to take over the duties when terrible crimes start happening in the city. First, a brutal murder of the mayor. Then, a strange, almost ritual execution of a monk from the local monastery and a young couple. And then— the execution of a criminal authority… Watching the body boiled alive, hanging from rusty chains, Sokolov already knew exactly how the next victim would die…