The world is a strange, sad, and wonderful place. And Moscow is at its center. Killers are running through the city--some on two legs, some on four. To lower the body count, Porfiry Rostnikov, the Moscow Police's one-legged inspector, will have to move faster than anybody.

Stalwarts of the Russian Mafia who live by the sword are finally dying by it. One is found naked and shot in the Moscow River, others floating in pools at the city's poshest hotels. The mob concludes that the men are victims of a new gang war, a conflict they're prepared to escalate accordingly--and ruthlessly.

Meanwhile, the craze for staged (and illegal) dogfights grows by leaps and snarls. Rostnikov's fellow officers Sasha Tkach and Elena Timofeyeva go undercover to sniff out the facts. It doesn't help their case to know that their new boss, Director of Moscow Police Igor Yaklovev--capable but corrupt--seems a little too interested in bloody canine sport. And it really hurts when an animal breaks from the pack and takes what could be a mortal chunk out of one unsuspecting cop.

Joined by Detective Emil Karpo, an apostle of old-fashioned Soviet justice, Rostnikov follows the crazily wending trails of high crime and low politics. The path will lead them to men whose ambition knows no limits and to places where no man stands a chance--and even to the ultimate question of who will live to rule Russia itself.