Olga Pushkin spends her days in a little rail-side hut dreaming of escaping the sleepy snow-clad village of Roslazny. But Roslazny doesn't stay sleepy for long as a crime wave disturbs the icy silence. . . One day Olga is knocked unconscious by a man falling from the Trans-Siberian his throat cut from ear to ear and his mouth stuffed with 10-ruble coins. Another death soon follows and Sergeant Vassily Marushkin the brooding enigmatic policeman who takes on the case finds himself falsely imprisoned by his Machiavellian superior Chief-Inspector Babikov. Olga resolves to help Vassily by proving his innocence. But with no leads to follow and time running out has Olga bitten off more than she can chew?

Part of the Olga Pushkin series.