In the near future, writer Victor Banev gets himself on a UN commission to investigate what's going on in the remote town of Tashlinsk, where reports tell of a virus-created race of brainiac mutants. Banev's tween daughter Ira is enrolled at a school for gifted children which has been taken over by the mutants, who have grown to despise ordinary humanity.

The year 1829. Nikolay Gogol, a young Third Section clerk, is desperate: his own books seem shallow and mediocre, so he keeps buying entire print runs just to burn them all. He is suffering from violent epileptic seizures and struggles to keep on working. Investigator Yakov Guro accidentally witnesses one such fit and realizes that Gogol's visions contain clues that could help solve actual crimes. Together, Gogol and Guro take on a particularly weird and baffling case that brings them to a small village of Dikanka, where everyone has a huge secret to hide.

The mongrel Lyolik becomes a witness to the arguments between his young owners, and attempts to reconcile them. Lyolik is a very unusual dog: he talks (ruminates, to be more precise) offscreen, in the tones of a street hoodlum to boot, which is no surprise since he spent his early childhood on the streets. Lyolik is not indifferent to his owners, and tries with all his power to help them with their problems. But alas, all that people hear is a dog’s barking…