The first of a young adult fiction tetralogy, it is set in an alternative version of the beginning of the 20th century in Vilnius, Lithuania and other cities across the Europe.

The main character is a former US Marine Antanas Sidabras, legate of the Free City of Vilnius, whose investigation of, at first look, just another murder turns out to be a complex web of political intrigue, and he has everybody against him – mad doctors, corrupt officials, Russian agents and monsters from his personal nightmares.

The Rothschilds have proposed to exchange Vilnius and Reval for the writing off all debt of the Russian Empire and the guarantee of zero per cent interest on all credit for the following 30 years.

Then suddenly Jonas Basanavicius comes to help with his flying Dragon Ffly, a colossal glider, with the heavy machinery attached to its nose.

In the last scene of the book, it is revealed that the Efraim, old Jew, who is believed to be just a shoe mender, truly is the head of the Rothschild dynasty.