Washoe County Library System

Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet Union, and his team search for a serial killer who has claimed at least 40 victims while protecting a visiting British journalist who is working on a story about a Moscow prostitution ring that produces leads to a high-level source seemingly beyond Rostnikov's reach.

Chief Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov and Emil Karpov lead an investigation for clues that might link the disappearance of a cosmonaut, the theft of the negatives of a Russian epic film, and the murder of the director of a center for paranormal research.