Eda Savenko finds herself in a situation where she wants to take her daughter to a restaurant, but her parents refuse to provide the necessary funds. She decides to take drastic action by robbing the dining room and subsequently consuming alcohol. Observing a girl with another person, she makes a dramatic gesture by cutting her veins, leading to her admission to the ‘Quiet Ward’ of the Saburka psychiatric hospital.
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.
