[1] As of 2020, it has received five subsequent editions in Russian by regular publishers (2001 by ACT, 2003 by Фолио, 2005 by ЭНАС, 2016 by Алькор Паблишерс and 2019 by Престиж Бук); the latter three are anthologies combining it with several other works by Eskov.
The first part is a non-fiction essay and polemic in which the author, a Russian biologist, challenges the claims made by Josh McDowell, an American evangelical apologist and evangelist, in his book The Resurrection Factor (1981).
John 11:47-48), and infiltrate it with an undercover operative (Judas), tasked among other things with spreading miracle stories like Jesus walking on water by pretending to have eyewitnessed them (which would be later repeated by others to create the Ascension narrative).
The plan succeeds at discrediting the rabbinical court (Sanhedrin) and deceiving the apostles who became convinced they witnessed a series of supernatural miracles, while in fact what they have seen were staged events orchestrated by paid performers and Roman agents.
Their plan has an unexpected and unforeseen byproduct: upon having a religious vision, Paul of Tarsus starts converting Gentiles to Christianity, starting a new world religion (and this, according to the narrative, is the second true coincidence important for the origins of Christianity - likened in the book to a virus, one that has both "escaped from a lab" and randomly mutated - after Peter misunderstands Joseph's reply from mountain fog, praising his son Jesus, as the direct voice of God).
[1] Historian Richard Carrier noted that this work is "popular in the slavic world, from Russia, Poland, the Baltics, and Ukraine" and "much overlooked" in the West; he praised it and concluded that it "disproves Christianity".