Based on the first of a trilogy by Tom Rob Smith and set in the Stalin era of the Soviet Union. During Stalin';;;s rule of the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, disgraced Ministry of State Security Agent Leo Demidov uncovers a strange and brutal series of child murders by a serial killer who everyone claims does not exist because it is Soviet doctrine that it is capitalism, not communism which creates serial killers. The state would not hear of the existence of a child murderer let alone a serial killer. He gets demoted and exiled but decides, with just the help of his wife, to continue pursuing the case.