Nikolai Masoudov is a master of fiction working in Moscow during the 1920s. As he's writing a piece about Pontius Pilate, Nikolai becomes the object of Soviet surveillance squads, who even enlist a black magic practitioner (they're leaving nothing to chance!). Feeling he's being tracked by government &NFi;and&NFi_; satanic forces, Nikolai begins to suspect that his assistant Margaret is also part of the conspiracy.