Sergey Burtsev, a specialist in раскрытие ritual murders, receives an assignment from the Prosecutor General’s Office to verify information about the burial of the remains of the royal family—not in the Urals, but in the area of the village Ust-Maega on the Valdai upland.
During the investigation, incidents from different years gradually fall into one chain and acquire an important meaning for Burtsev: the case of an unnamed elder buried in a stranger’s grave and beheaded after his death; an unfortunate hunting accident; the abduction of a monk from the Holy Cyril Monastery; and an accident in which an employee of a swan reserve died. In addition, Burtsev must confront an uncontrolled special service operating in the state…