Just as the dust from the case of the White Bulldog begins to settle in the small Russian town of Zavolzhsk, its sleepy rural existence is shaken up once again by the arrival of a desperately frightened monk who seeks the help of the bishop, Mitrofanii.The monks have been troubled by visions of a dark, hooded figure that appears to walk on the waters of the vast Blue Lake surrounding their island monastery of New Ararat. Sceptical of ghost stories, Mitrofanii dispatches Alexei Lentochkin, his clever young ward, to investigate the mystery, only for Lentochkin himself to fall victim to the phantom. The bishop decides to send two more of his most trusted advisors, one after the other, but they also meet with unexpected fates.Finally Sister Pelagia takes matters into her own hands and, adopting a number of ingenious disguises, she ventures across the Blue Lake in pursuit of the Black Monk. But as she delves deeper into the layers of secrecy that cloak the islanders, and as the body count continues to rise, Pelagia realizes that an enounter with a ghost may be the least of her problems. Read Less