This text radiates with furnace heat and exudes grave cold — and at the same time. The novel is based on materials from the investigative case of Pyotr Ilyich Nesterenko, director of the Moscow crematorium on the territory of the Don Necropolis. While working on the novel, Sasha Filipenko repeated the path of the main character, following him by visiting Saratov and Paris, Istanbul and Warsaw. A huge volume of archival documents was provided to the author by the Memorial Society.