Summer of the fourteenth year, the eve of the First World War. All participants in the upcoming massacre are confident that the war will be swift and victorious, and exclusively in their favor, and therefore joyfully dig a hole in which millions of the dead will rest. But at the same time, without realizing it, they build a scaffold for themselves. The warnings of individual smart people drown in the schizophrenic gwalt of politicians and the furious roar of crowds. The matter is now small: shots will be fired in Sarajevo - and a bloody square dance will spin in Europe. And at this critical moment, an external force in relation to this world intervenes in local history. The autocratic Grand Duke of Artan, a lover of swift crushing blows and final victories, throws his sword on the scale of world politics - he is the one who holds the answer for his deeds exclusively before the Almighty. A little time will pass - and the world will understand that nothing will ever be the same as it was before...