In the middle of the XIX century. the famous French astronomer Le Verrier proved that the motion of Mercury does not obey Newton's law of gravity - the perihelion of its orbit is additionally shifted by 43 seconds of arc per century. The history of the discovery and attempts to explain this riddle, which ended only with Einstein's creation of the general theory of relativity, is devoted to the book of the English historian of science. For astronomers, physicists and everyone interested in the history and problems of modern science.