The novel opens on 13 May 1876 with a university student, Pyotr Kokorin, committing suicide in the public park in front of a beautiful young noblewoman, Elizaveta von Evert-Kolokoltseva.

At Bezhetskaya's home, Fandorin meets Count Zurov, an Army officer that Amalia seems fond of, and sees Akhtyrtsev again.

Fandorin gets a new boss, Ivan Brilling, a sophisticated detective familiar with modern investigative techniques.

Brilling believes that the murder is the work of a terrorist organization called "Azazel" that is operating in Moscow.

However, at their meeting Lady Astair is helpful to Fandorin, who leaves her school convinced of her innocence and impressed by her charitable mission.

He sneaks into her room after she leaves it and finds a paper that appears to be a list of Azazel members all over the world, many of whom hold high ranks in government or the military.

Meanwhile, Fandorin hurriedly leaves for St. Petersburg to intercept the letter that Amalia has mailed to her Azazel contact there.

He succeeds, and sees the letter delivered to Gerald Cunningham, a teacher at the Moscow Astair House.

She tells him that her Astair Houses are part of a plot to train bright young orphan boys to serve her and her group, which plans to eventually take over the world.

After the newly married couple retreat to their hotel suite, a messenger brings Fandorin a package.

Fandorin jumps out his window in an attempt to arrest the killer, and thus escapes the bomb, which blows up and kills his young bride.

The novel ends with a dazed Fandorin walking the streets of Moscow, his hair having turned gray at the temples due to his shock over his wife's death.

[2] In 2007, Fyodor Bondarchuk was announced as the director of a potential English-language film version of Azazel, with Paul Verhoeven producing.