Solovetsky occupies the island site of a former monastery in the White Sea. Here, hundreds of miles from civilization and with a skeleton crew of secret-policemen in charge, some prisoners are consigned to all kinds of forced labor while others sit at comfortable desks in administrative or cultural positions. With the brutal winter fast approaching, Tolya Bogomolov, a young mathematician serving a three-year sentence, hopes an acquaintance he's been cultivating will lead to a less brutal work assignment. Knowing Gennady Antonov holds a privileged position restoring the monks' seized collection of icons ought to improve Tolya's odds of reassignment. But when Antonov's body is discovered floating frozen in the bay, their connection turns dangerous. At first the authorities question Tolya, but then he's mystified when they assign him to assist the elderly detective investigating the case – but better to find the real killer than have the murder pinned on him. To avoid becoming the murderer's next victim, Tolya must defy Solovetsky's unforgiving regime and make ruthless use of his fellow prisoners. Putting his story to paper thirty years later at last means reckoning the true cost of his survival.
