 The murderer is described as the Dark Horseman, and the superstitious population, especially the local investigator Alexander Khristoforovich Binh, is extremely reluctant to help the investigation from St. Petersburg.Gogol meets the wife of landowner Danishevsky, Elisabeth, who admires his creativity and toward whom he begins to feel (as he tries to convince himself) platonic emotions.He also gets acquainted with the landowner Danishevsky himself, a strange and mysterious man who, along with Elisabeth, lives in isolation, despite being so close to the village of Dikanka.