When, after the Second Chernobyl disaster, the territory around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant turned into a Zone filled with deadly anomalies and predatory mutants, UN troops cordoned off its perimeter so that horror and madness would not escape from it into the outside world. However, sometimes a person’s life develops in such a way that one has to seek salvation on this cursed land... A soldier of the Russian peacekeeper battalion, Nikita Nefedov, driven to the brink by the bullying of demobilization and finding himself in a hopeless situation, goes to the Zone and joins the turbulent life of stalkers - members of local smuggling groups. To survive here, he has to become a completely different person and learn many useful skills, the main ones being the ability to shoot and survive in any situation. From a downtrodden “spirit” he turns into a ruthless killer nicknamed Deserter...