In 1988, Plato Makovski and four brilliant young friends from university abandon their science studies in favor of the shady world of post-Soviet business. In the economic meltdown that follows, with disconcerting slickness Plato devises a slew of semi-legal financial deals that enable him to outfox the ongoing opposition of the authorities. His first ventures into capitalism soon make him fabulously wealthy. Taking the form of a thriller that follows the police investigation into the attempted assassination of Makovski, Tycoon draws us into the private lives and backgrounds of these complex and unique characters, who loot their country and its inhabitants, yet are also the lifeblood of a nation paralyzed by inertia and the fear of change. Tycoon is the saga of the past fifteen years in Russia: a kind of Once Upon a Time in Russia set against the backdrop of the many stupendous upheavals that the country is undergoing.