"The King of Reporters" Vladimir Gilyarovsky is investigating the strange suicide of the brother of one of the workers of the famous "modeler" of the early 20th century, Nadezhda Petrovna Lamanova. An experienced reporter, accidentally hitting the scene of the tragedy, immediately realized that the suicide was staged. And later it turned out that shortly before his death, a handsome young man met a certain gentleman who turned out to be a pimp of male prostitutes, and he lured the young poet into a society of men dressed in black half masks and dresses from Lamanova... What happened at that meeting is unknown. But the young man soon died. And the traces of the crime led Gilyarovsky almost to the very top - to the persons of royal blood. So what did Lamanova herself have to do with all this?..