Book One opens in the mountains of the Caucasus, in the Caucasus region of Russia. It is 1910, and the narrator tells us that he hopes that the monster will not be as ferocious as the people say she is. He tells us about how the monster was captured six years ago by a group of hunters in the forest of Mount zaadan, and how one of the hunters died from the wounds he received in the process. The narrator also tells us how he and his family have come to the mountains to search for zana, a mythical woman who is believed to be the mother of three children. He says that if the monster does not obey, he will whip her thirty minutes each time she does not comply with his whip. He also tells the narrator about the fight he is about to watch between the champion boxer, Evgeny Drozdenko, and a man who has come to see him. The man wants to meet the boxer because he is interested in the history of the native peoples of the area.