1946, a poverty-stricken village, and a hungry winter is ahead. To their misfortune, boys find a book on black magic at an abandoned royal manor. With the help of dark forces, any wish can be granted. Now the whole village is infected with a delusional idea - to make a deal with the Devil. But what price must be paid? A price that leads to a tragic and terrible denouement.

Leader of a traveling gypsy band from the steppes of Bessarabia (now Moldova), Toma Alistar is a skilled violinist whose fame takes him on tours around European capitals and royal courts. He remains obsessed with his first love, beautiful Leanca who was married elsewhere while Toma was traveling, and spends his life and fortune trying to find her.

Fourteen years old Anutsa is often forced to stay alone while her father leaves for business trips.

Panoramic life of a Moldovan village in the second half of the twentieth century.

At the heart of the story is a rural schoolteacher who, in 1944, leaves his native Bessarabia as the Red Army advances with heavy fighting. The gentle, cultured Sebastian Radu has every reason to avoid meeting the so-called liberators. And not just because one of the new regime’s first measures will be a background check, and Radu will have to write “noble” in the “social origin” field. The point is, our protagonist already has some experience dealing with representatives of the “new world.”