Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet Union, is a sharp and caring policeman as well as the perfect tour guide to a changing Russia. Rostnikov and his team are searching for a serial killer who has claimed at least 40 victims. And then there is the problem of protecting a visiting British journalist who is working on a story about a Moscow prostitution ring and in doing so, Rostnikov and his team uncover a chain of murders that lead to a source too high to be held accountable if the police want to keep their jobs. Or their lives.