At the beginning of May 192 ... in Leningrad, in an abandoned cottage on the Krestovka River, a murder takes place. Criminal Investigation Officer Vasily Vitalyevich Shelga discovers a stabbed man with traces of torture. In the spacious basement of the dacha, some physical and chemical experiments were carried out. It is suggested that the murdered man is a certain engineer Petr Petrovich Garin. Meanwhile, the real engineer Garin, a conceited and immoral type, but an unusually talented scientist who developed a thermal miracle ray (similar to the current laser), escapes from foreign killers, and his employee, Garin's double, dies. Vasily Shelga, accidentally encountering living Garin at the post office, takes him for a double. Garin is in no hurry to convince Shelga, appearing to be a kind of Pyankov-Pitkevich; they conclude an oral pact of mutual assistance. Soon Shelga realizes that he was fooled, but late: Garin slipped abroad to Paris. At this time in Paris is the American chemical king, the billionaire Rolling, buying up the chemical industry of an old European woman. He and his lover of Russian origin, chic Zoya Monroz, have long shown interest in the invention of engineer Garin. It was their people who committed the murder in Leningrad, unsuccessfully trying to seize the miracle apparatus. In Paris, Garin meets with his co-worker Victor Lenoir, who has just completed work on efficient fuel (compressed into small pyramids) for Garin's hyperboloid. Fearing for his life, Garin persuades Lenoir, making up, to become his double.

At this time, a homeless boy Vanya appeared in Leningrad, who arrived here from Siberia; on his back he wrote with an ink pencil a letter for Garin from the scientist Nikolai Mantsev, who even before the revolution went on an expedition to Kamchatka to find confirmation of Garin’s theoretical guess about the existence in the depths of the Earth of the so-called Olivine belt, in which the metals are in a molten state, in including coveted gold. Garin needs gold for power over the world. To break through to gold, you need a hyperboloid. To build a huge hyperboloid and mine, you need a lot of money, that is, Rolling. Therefore, pretending to be the same Pyankov-Pitkevich, Garin goes straight to the billionaire, offering him cooperation on behalf of engineer Garin, but the self-righteous Rolling does not take the stranger seriously and eventually expels him from the office. Having received an alarming telegram from Garin, who fears assassins, the brave Shelga goes straight to Paris, hoping to interest the brilliant adventurer with information from Mantsev. And at this time in Paris, the restless Zoya Monroz orders another murder of Garin, this time to the bandit Gaston Duck Nose; but the double dies again - this time Victor Lenoir. Zoya becomes a friend and ally of Garin, who promises her the future possession of the Olivine belt and power over the world. Rolling and Gaston Duck Nose, both blinded by jealousy and greed, are trying to finally kill Garin; he defends himself with a small hyperboloid. And after some time, the powerful Rolling becomes a captive and forced partner of Garin and Zoe on the Arizona yacht. Garin brings another captive and temporary ally - Shelga to the yacht. Guided by the principle: what is good for establishing Soviet power throughout the world is good, a noble criminal investigator still hopes to return Garin’s invention to the USSR.

Garin explodes German chemical plants with a hyperboloid, paving the way for Rolling's monopoly in Europe. With the money of Rolling, the necessary equipment is purchased all over the world. The expedition sent by Garin discovers Mantsev’s site in Kamchatka. Mantsev dies, but his documents on the Olivin belt are forwarded to Garin. Garin, Zoya and Rolling capture the island in the South Pacific. A large shaft with a hyperboloid for drilling is being built here. Workers and employees were recruited from all over the world. The police are made up of former white officers. The Americans send a squadron to destroy Garin. Garin destroys the squadron with a large hyperboloid. Having reached the Olivine belt, that is, unlimited reserves of cheap gold, Garin begins to sell gold bullion at ridiculous prices. There is a financial and economic catastrophe in the capitalist world. But Garin is not going to destroy capitalism. He negotiates power with the most influential capitalists in exchange for stabilizing society. The US Senate declares Garin a dictator. Zoe Monroz becomes Queen of the Golden Island. But against the expectation, the "romantic of absolute power" himself falls into the power of "bourgeois boredom."

Fortunately, a rebellion of workers led by the "communist" Shelga flares up on the Golden Island. Temporarily transferring power to his next double, Garin wants to take possession of a large hyperboloid and mine. Yacht "Arizona" sailing to the Golden Island, but falls into the typhoon. Garin and Zoe are thrown onto an uninhabited coral island. The months last. In the shadow of a hut made of palm leaves, Zoe leafs through the surviving book with the designs of the palaces on the Golden Island. Gathering shells and catching a shirt with fish, Garin, having covered himself with a rotten jacket, goes to bed on the sand, he must have experienced various entertaining stories in his sleep.