Fresh from a case that has shattered his belief in the regime he works for, Samson Kolechko is confronted with a mystery that borders on the impossible. A troop of Red Army soldiers has disappeared without a trace while visiting the Halytska bathhouse, their abandoned boots and uniforms the only proof that they ever existed.

Faced with such a fantastical conundrum, Samson must resort to a fantastical investigation method: stitching his operative severed ear into a bathhouse worker's jacket, he is able to eavesdrop on his every move. But he discovers far more than he bargained for, and matters are further complicated by the human remains found in the stoves and the presence of a sinister religious cult in the city.

With his quick-witted new wife Nadezhda at his side, Samson must not only solve the case but navigate the political turmoil that still grips Kyiv as civil war looms and trust between neighbours and comrades is eroded day by day. In the third of his Kyiv Mysteries, Andrey Kurkov, Ukraine's greatest living novelist, vividly depicts a city filled with political turbulence and eccentric characters - and draws ominous parallels with the present day.

Translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk