1872. The autumn equinox is approaching—the time when grim magic becomes especially powerful. The spirit of the forest surrounding the county town of Zhi vogorsk is ready to reveal the terrifying secrets hidden for more than a century and a half. The townspeople are about to see what monsters this wood has spawned, and the price for the truth will be a surge of lycanthropy hanging over Zhi vogorsk. But who leads the pack of wolf-werewolves of the Spirit Forest and directs their attacks? And most importantly—how can the terrible contagion of shapeshifting be stopped? Will those who take on the investigation of the “werewolf case” avoid the fateful transformation— the merchant’s son Ivan Altynov and his fiancée, the daughter of the local priest Zina Tikhomirova?