At the Tenginsky Regiment outpost, fate brought together five young officers: Captain Raevsky, Gentleman of the Bedchamber Nikolai Annensky, duelist, gambler, and accomplished swordsman Alexander Shulenin, young officer Fyodor Chistyakov, and Lieutenant Vladimir Baumgarten, exiled to the Caucasus for killing Prince Golitsyn in a duel.
They are destined to play out a grandiose, intricate ploy to find the true culprit in Prince Golitsyn's murder. One way or another, everyone was drawn into this story, everyone—both culprits and executioners at the same time.
To cut this "Gordian knot," the participants in the drama decide to stage a "carousel"—a kind of five-person duel where there will be no winner...
