The action of the novel “The Executioner, or the Abbey of the Winegrowers”, presented for the first time in Russian, unlike most of Cooper’s works, takes place not on the American continent, but in the very heart of Europe. As part of a group traveling in the first quarter of the 18th century from Switzerland to Italy - first on a barge across Lake Geneva, and then to the Saint Bernard Pass - it turns out to be the executioner of one of the Swiss cantons - a sign that, according to local beliefs, promises all sorts of troubles. A ferocious whirlwind sweeps over the surface of the lake, causing the death of several passengers; then the fiance of the executioner’s daughter, who at the last moment refused to marry her, dies mysteriously; a relationship between the Doge of Naples, traveling incognito, and a well-known Italian smuggler is suddenly discovered... Almost all the characters in the novel are forced under extreme circumstances to reveal themselves in a new light: some, no matter how hard they try, cannot disguise their meanness, selfishness, and inner readiness for betrayal, while others show the highest nobility and purity of humanity quality.