The made-for-TV miniseries is based on a real-life robbery that took place in Moscow in 1980, when a 17th-century diamond broach worth over $1,000,000 was stolen from the home of a famous writer's widow. Yevgeny Mironov, who is a co-producer of the project, also takes the role of the main suspect in the crime – a gypsy opera singer and lover of Leonid Brezhnev's daughter.

Shooting took place in 2010-2011 around Moscow, Odessa and Yerevan. The series was first broadcast in the Ukraine on September 19, 2011, followed by the Russian premiere on Channel 1 on October 3, 2011.