After suffering from a heart attack, a wealthy elderly Russian man plans to will most of his estate to his estranged daughter, but his titular wife has other plans.
The early Middle Ages. A time of heavy swords and dark blood law. The ruling clan is in discord. The guilt for the accidental death of the brother has fallen on the Grand Duke. According to the law, revenge must be taken by the younger brother, a bastard. For the refusal to kill, he has to pay with eve- rything he had, because “for peace you need more swords than for a war”...
A writer in 1930s Moscow has his work banned and is expelled from the official union, leaving him without income. He then writes a novel about a mysterious dark visitor and gradually starts confusing his real life with the story.
