The main character, an official of the 14th grade, Erast Petrovich Fandorin, serves as a clerk in the Detective Department and secretly dreams of becoming a detective. By the will of circumstances, he finds himself involved in the investigation of a mysterious suicide.

Julia is beautiful, mysterious and... hopelessly lonely. She lives with her mother in a house where the cult of her late military father, a very harsh man and – apparently – a rare idiot, reigns supreme. None of the men Julia has met meets such a high standard. But mom is determined to get her daughter married. And then one day a handsome man in a military dress uniform appears in their family. The only trouble is, he's not exactly who they think he is... or not at all.