Night Watch

A young boy named Egor travels home late at night on the Moscow metro. He feels an unnerving sensation of being watched and, after exiting the station, is drawn by an enchanting music, a "Call," into a dark alley. There, a young man instructs a girl to reveal her vampire nature and feed on the mesmerized Egor.

The story shifts to Anton Gorodetsky, an agent of the Night Watch, a secret organization of Light Others who monitor the Dark Others. He begins his fifth night of a difficult hunt, attuning his senses to vampires by drinking pig's blood. While patrolling the metro, Anton spots a young woman with a powerful, professionally-cast curse, a "black vortex," hanging over her head. This curse marks her for a catastrophic death that could cause an "Inferno," a disaster with widespread casualties. He uses his charged onyx amulet in a futile attempt to dispel it, succeeding only in temporarily postponing the event. Immediately after, he senses his true targets, vampires, are nearby and is forced to abandon the cursed woman. He tracks their psychic trail and realizes their target is a young boy. He follows the boy into an alley, entering the parallel dimension known as the Twilight. There, he confronts a registered male vampire initiating an unregistered female with Egor. Anton identifies himself as Night Watch. The female attacks, but he repels her with vodka. He then uses the male's registration tag to execute him, turning his body to dust. The female vampire flees, and Anton captures an image of her aura for tracking. To his surprise, Egor, who should have fainted from the magical exposure, runs away with incredible speed. Anton's backup, agents Igor and Garik, arrive and he sends them in pursuit of the female.

Anton reports to his boss, Boris Ignatievich, who reveals the mission was a test of Anton's suitability for fieldwork. The boss explains that the black vortex is a world-threatening curse and that Anton's intervention bought them precious time. He also reveals that Egor's ability to resist the Call proves he has immense, untapped magical potential. Anton is ordered to find the boy and recruit him for the Light. This briefing occurs in Anton's dream. Upon waking, he is assigned a new partner: Olga, a powerful magical being imprisoned in the form of a snowy owl. Soon after, Kostya, Anton's teenage vampire neighbor, visits, upset about the killing. He argues the vampire should have faced a proper tribunal according to the Great Treaty between Light and Dark. During their conversation, Olga's presence terrifies Kostya, revealing her as a figure feared by the Dark.

Anton begins his search for the cursed woman. He performs a minor magical "remoralisation," an intervention to shift a person's moral imperatives, on a street salesman and is immediately confronted by Day Watch agents Alisa Donnikova and Pyotr Nesterov. To de-escalate, Anton makes a "personal agreement" with Alisa, incurring a minor magical debt. Olga, speaking for the first time, berates him for compromising with the Dark, revealing she was punished for a similar mistake long ago. The Night Watch office calls with a lead: the cursed woman's trail has been found in the Perovo district. Anton goes to the field headquarters, where the entire Moscow Night Watch is assembled. Boris Ignatievich briefs them that the Day Watch insists the unknown Dark Magician who cast the curse be allowed to contact them. The agent Ignat is assigned to seduce the cursed woman, Svetlana, to gather information, while Anton and Olga are tasked with finding Egor. Olga devises a plan to use Egor as bait to lure the hungry female vampire.

Back at Anton's apartment, Olga briefly assumes her human form. She explains she can only maintain this form for thirty minutes a day and that she and Boris Ignatievich were once lovers. They track Egor to his apartment, where the boy's cat senses their presence in the Twilight. This alerts Egor, who accidentally enters the Twilight himself for the first time and sees Anton. The strain causes Egor to fall into a "Twilight coma." To save him from being permanently absorbed, Anton cuts his own wrist, using the burst of life energy to push them both back into the real world. Egor awakens, and Anton explains the truth about the Others, the Light and Dark, and the Great Treaty, which includes provisions for licensed vampire hunts. Horrified, Egor orders Anton to leave. Just then, Boris Ignatievich calls, ordering Anton to the Perovo crisis and sending agents Tiger Cub and Bear to guard Egor. The female vampire outsmarts the guards, using the Call on Egor, who enters the Twilight and is taken hostage on the roof of his building. She demands to negotiate directly with Anton.

Anton arrives in Perovo to find the vortex has grown into a massive tornado; Ignat's seduction attempt on Svetlana fueled it. At the field HQ, Anton meets Zabulon, the head of the Day Watch, who is observing. Boris Ignatievich shows Anton three possible futures: the Inferno erupts, Svetlana is killed, or Anton intervenes and somehow removes the vortex. Anton is sent to confront Svetlana. Posing as her patient, he learns her immense self-hatred over refusing to donate a kidney to her dying mother is the source of the vortex. Anton's simple sympathy causes the vortex to shrink. He is then informed of the hostage crisis and makes the "irrational" choice to leave Svetlana to save Egor. This selfless act of concern for another causes the vortex to shrink dramatically. On his way, Anton learns his failure to report Egor's ability to enter the Twilight is what allowed the kidnapping.

On the roof, Anton and his fellow agents confront the female vampire. She reveals she was a licensed victim illegally turned by her initiator, who fell in love with her. The Night Watch attacks, but a magical shield protects her. Zabulon appears, declaring both the vampire and Egor are now under the Day Watch's protection. A massive battle erupts. Egor escapes by entering a deeper level of the Twilight, but Anton follows and rescues him. Zabulon reveals his demonic form. The agent "Ilya" is revealed to be Boris Ignatievich in disguise; he confronts and defeats Zabulon. Alisa then uses her magical debt to force Anton to reveal Boris Ignatievich's manipulative plan. Disillusioned, Egor calls both Watches "bastards." Kostya arrives and saves the female vampire, demanding she receive a trial. Finally, Boris Ignatievich tells Anton he is mystically linked to Svetlana and destined to be her first love before she transcends him to become a Great Sorceress.

The second story begins with Maxim, a seemingly ordinary auditor who leads a secret life as a vigilante "judge," killing a were-panther named Galina with a wooden dagger. At a Night Watch briefing, Boris Ignatievich announces the murder. The killer is an uninitiated Light Magician they dub the "Maverick." Suspecting a Day Watch plot to frame a high-ranking agent, Boris Ignatievich reviews the evidence and finds Anton is the only one with no alibi for any of the Maverick's killings. To protect him, the boss performs a body-swap spell, placing Anton's consciousness in Olga's body and vice-versa. Anton, in Olga's body, goes to Svetlana's apartment and reveals the swap. After an emotional confrontation, they reconcile and go to a public restaurant to maintain Anton's alibi of never being alone.

At the restaurant, they spot a Dark Magician, who is also being targeted by Maxim. The magician is found dead in the restroom, killed by the Maverick, and Anton is perfectly framed. Boris Ignatievich appears and explains the Day Watch will now demand a tribunal to read Anton's memory, exposing all the Night Watch's secrets. Svetlana provides the aura of the Maverick's female companion, and Boris Ignatievich orders Anton to find him. Alisa and Zabulon arrive and expose the body-swap. Zabulon attacks Anton with a lethal spell, but Maxim, who is leaving the restaurant, rescues Anton in his car. Anton escapes and meets Olga in the metro to swap their bodies back. Olga confirms the Day Watch is using Anton as bait to provoke Svetlana. Hunted by the Dark, Anton ambushes and kills his pursuer, takes on his appearance, and infiltrates the Day Watch's field headquarters at the Ostankino TV Tower. There, he learns he is being deliberately herded toward Egor's neighborhood.

Anton deduces Zabulon's complete plan: the Maverick's next victim is Egor. The Day Watch will allow the killing, then kill the Maverick themselves, sealing Anton's fate and causing Svetlana to lose control in a desperate attempt to save him. Maxim arrives at Egor's building, identifies the boy as Dark, and prepares to kill him. Anton confronts Maxim, revealing the existence of the Night Watch, but Maxim refuses to back down. Anton is caught in a trap: let Egor die or kill a fellow Light One. He chooses to fight. Maxim's fanatical faith makes him immune to Anton's magic, and he stabs Anton with the wooden dagger. Because the weapon is only lethal to Dark Others, it only causes a physical wound. Egor protects the injured Anton just as Gesar (Boris Ignatievich's true name) and Svetlana arrive. Gesar reveals the entire affair was a Night Watch operation to test Svetlana and recruit Maxim for the Inquisition; Zabulon was not involved.

The final story begins with a Light courier being ambushed and killed by Alisa's team, though the object he carried is missing. During a city-wide heatwave, Gesar sends the Night Watch on holiday. The growing power gap between Svetlana and Anton causes tension in their relationship. Svetlana confronts Anton about the moral compromises of the Watch's struggle. Anton learns from Olga that Gesar is preparing Svetlana for a world-altering mission that Olga herself failed in the past. The next morning, feeling detached after finding Svetlana asleep with Ignat and Lena, Anton returns to Moscow. Zabulon is waiting in his apartment and reveals the courier brought the "Chalk of Destiny," an artifact that can rewrite the Book of Fate. Anton confirms this with Gesar and in the Watch's database. He walks through Moscow, gathering immense power by "borrowing" happiness from ordinary people, a forbidden act. He then confronts Alisa and, to save her from punishment, Zabulon grants him the right to a "second-degree intervention," a massive, unilateral act of Good. Anton realizes Gesar's plan: Svetlana will use the Chalk to rewrite Egor's unwritten destiny, turning him into a messianic figure for the Light.

Anton goes to the roof of Egor's building, where the ritual is taking place, witnessed by Gesar, Zabulon, and the Inquisitor Maxim. A magical hurricane forms as a side effect, and Gesar urges Anton to use his intervention right to stop it. Svetlana hesitates, asking Anton for guidance. Instead, Anton turns all the power he has gathered upon himself in an act of "remoralisation" to find his own absolute truth. He tells Svetlana the choice must be hers alone. She erases Egor's destiny from the Book of Fate but writes nothing new, leaving him free, and then renounces the Watch. Gesar reveals the final layer of his plan: the entire event was a diversion. The real operation was conducted elsewhere by Olga, who used the other half of the Chalk to rewrite a different destiny. Gesar confesses his ultimate motive: his centuries-long machinations were all to force the higher powers to repeal Olga's punishment and restore her as his equal, because he loves her.