Vein and sinew and even bone could clearly be seen in the deep laceration beneath the chin, ensuring that neither Dmitry nor Shulgin could doubt what had happened.

Half the man's throat had been torn away . . .

1855.War rages in Europe once more. Sevastopol is under siege, Saint Petersburg is blockaded, but in Moscow, someone waits: for a tsar's death, and for the curse upon his blood to be passed to a new generation.

As Russia grows weaker, a man and a woman - unaware of the hidden ties that bind them - must come to terms with their shared legacy.

In Moscow, Tamara Valentinovna Lavrova - an agent of the tsar - uncovers a brutal murder. It is not the first such death. Similar killings have been committed by one who has stalked the city since 1812.

And in the ruins of Sevastopol, Dmitry Alekseevich Danilov confronts both the British and French guns, but also another foe - an enemy his father thought he'd buried beneath the earth some thirty years before...