The plot is set in modern Moscow, in the 1990s, with "New Russians", Hummer H1 SUVs, bribery, violence, truck fulls of tinned stew as a dowry, etc.
Based on Boris Akunin's novel 'Azazel' (English title 'The Winter Queen') set in Moscow in 1876. The novel started a long series quite popular in Russia. In 'Azazel' a young police officer - Erast Fandorin - investigates an odd suicide of some rich young man and finds a complex conspiracy, trying to take over most European countries - from Britain to Ottoman Empire - with the best intentions, of course.
Moscow, 1986, the heat of Perestroika. Borya is an average clumsy teenager who is miraculously admitted to the legendary Bolshoi Ballet School. The boy is convinced that he will become a ballet dancer like his father, Mikhail Baryshnikov. But is this father real or imaginary?
