One wrong bet in the "LARENTIAN BET ON LOVE," and an unlucky young oar launches a complex mechanism of clan intrigue, cunning conspiracies against the Empire and a series of non-accidental bloody deaths among aristocrats. Can the innocent soul of Laura Al Gevorg, the illegitimate daughter of Admiral, be avenged?... Who will be born in the marriage of the incomparable countess-swindler Jena Orty "Magnificent" with the "marked" Marquis Holrick Van Honn, nicknamed the "Shantogirian ghost" for his ruthlessness to sworn enemies?... Will the inglorious end of the Emperor's dynasty come because of the ridiculous mistakes of his loyal subjects?.