Mercury and Gold

Doctor Yakov Van Gedele arrives in Moscow, having just witnessed the election of a new empress. Having lost his patron, a spy poisoned with venom, Yakov flees to Moscow from his bad reputation – in Königsberg and Poland, rumors blamed him for the death of his patron. In Moscow, where no one knows him, Yakov dreams of becoming the personal surgeon of some moderately ailing court intriguer. During his medical practice in Moscow, Yakov observes the underside of the capital's grand life and sees the social lions and lionesses in an unusual perspective. Among them are a pair of imperial favorites, forming a mad love triangle with the empress, Buren and Levenwold, heroes of the novel Gold and Steel...