Late 19th century, Moscow. “The King of Reporters” Vladimir Gilyarovsky meets a young but already famous opera singer Fyodor Shalyapin, who has only recently received a role in the opera “Boris Godunov.” To better understand his character, Shalyapin—disguised as a runaway convict—persuades Gilyarovsky to go down into the underworld of night Kihrovka and find the real child murderer! Guided by a local showman, they discover the body of a boy who had surgery on his vocal cords. Will the friends manage not only to find the mad surgeon in the labyrinthine underworld of Khitrovka, but also to stay alive?