Another planet in the period of medieval times. An employee of the institute of experimental history from Earth, who is send under the name of noble don Rumata of Estor as a spy with a mission to contact the local resident of the institute, arrives in the city of Arkanar. But the resident perishes under an unlucky attempt to make a palace coup, and Rumata have to take his place as the resident. Soon he meets all the horrors of the medieval society - a peasant war, palace coups, mass executions. To continue to be an indifferent watcher of all these horrors turns out to be simply impossible...

Hard to Be a God

The shooting of a prosperous and influential businessman leaves the residents of a small provincial town in a state of shock. While the initial investigation indicates that a woman may have been involved in the murder, the crime scene has been left clean, and detectives have very little evidence to go on. However, with the culprits still at large and the crime unsolved, the sudden death of this local celebrity is frightening the entire town. Fortunately, the investigator from the central prosecutor's office happens to be in town on vacation and steps in to head the murder investigation.