Konstantin Alekseev, a well-known industrialist and amateur actor, arrives in the provincial town of X. Here the old fortune-teller Zaikina died, who for no reason bequeathed her apartment to Alekseev. On the day of arrival, a mysterious bank robbery also takes place: a cashier is killed, the killer fled. They are already waiting at Alekseev's apartment, and from this moment not a single trifle, not a single nuance will turn out to be an accident, an empty coincidence. Oh yes, one more trifle: the 19th century is coming to an end in the yard. The new novel by H. L. Oldie is historical and fantastic at the same time, permeated through and through with the realities of time and eternal problems. Masks grow on faces, people, events, things - everything lines up in a single mise-en-scene, and if you applaud well after the curtain has been raised, the actors, perhaps, will come out to bow.