He found himself in alienated spaces by the will of evil fate. He wanted to survive at any cost, but he had to go through all the circles of technogenic hell, to learn how deep human meanness is and how merciless the power of technos, indifferent to people, is. Novice stalker Maxim did not suspect that he was caught in an inexorable whirlpool of events. Who cares about a scorg-infected, dying newcomer, when the military and the Order of Stalkers are on the verge of unraveling the secret of the Knot, and the armies of mechanoids converge in a decisive battle? But not everything is decided by the powers that be. Only Maxim and the group of the legendary Titanium Vine are able to influence the inexorable course of events, discover the sinister plans of technos, look beyond the line of life and death to unravel the mystery of the gloomy building with the DRG logo.