When we last saw Boris Akunin's erstwhile hero Erast Fandorin, he was disappearing from view out the window of a railway car that was heading back to Mother Russia from the battlefields of the Russo-Turkish wars. A beautiful young woman was surprised to find that her eyes were unable to keep him in focus as they were being clouded by tears. She knew that he and she were to be irrevocably parted, not only because the man she was sharing a carriage with was her husband to be, but also because Erast was off to Japan where he was about to begin his seven year term as an assistant counsel in the Russian embassy.

Young Erast's mood was particularly despondent, because although he had succeeded in catching the spy who was intent on foiling Russia's military victory, and the Empire had vanquished her opponents in the field, the victories were pyrrhic. All of Europe was prepared to stand in opposition to the terms of the peace treaty, and the spy had achieved his real long term goal of creating the opportunity for his chosen man to take the reigns of power in Turkey.

So even while all around him are celebrating the Empire's great victory, Erast sees the truth has no desire to return to Russia. As he prepares himself for the journey that will take him from the battlefields of Eastern Europe to the island Empire of Japan, events in a secluded house in Paris, France are unfolding that will turn his expected relaxing sea voyage into an event every bit as perilous as his stay on the Russian Front.

A ghastly murder/robbery has taken place, where all 11 inhabitants of a household are found murdered and a valuable object d'art has been stolen. Although it is quickly figured out that the ten servants had been poisoned, and their master bludgeoned to death, mystery surrounds the crime. How was the culprit, or culprits, able to subdue all ten servants without a struggle? Why is the only item of value stolen recovered within 24 hours — fished out of the Seine river by a young lad.

The gold statuette of Shiva was valued at easily half a million francs, so to find it discarded, blood spattered and stained, like your typical murder weapon that was grabbed on the spur of the moment by a surprised intruder, is yet another mystery for Commissioner Gustave Gauche of Special Crimes section of the Paris Police. His only clue to the identity of the murderer is the emblem of a golden whale that he finds clutched in the bludgeoned victim's hand — as if in his final struggles he had been able to rip it from his killer's clothing.