The chronicle “At the Foot of the Vast World” tells about the life of a provincial town in the “Middle Soviet” era - 1930-1950s. The book contains dozens, if not hundreds of characters of different nationalities (Russians, Jews, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Armenians, Kazakhs, gypsies) and by profession (railroad workers, teachers, musicians, newspapermen, trade workers, builders). Each has its own face: a characteristic appearance, a speech identity. A school, a hospital, a newspaper editorial office, a ferry crossing, a market square, a hairdresser's, an ancient mounded fortress near a town with a factory and a prison, two large parks, the restaurant "Vesely Irtysh" - he will go everywhere and It’s as if everything is united by the main character of the book, the young Vitka Ilyin, a recognized tramp in the town, a serious “traveler.”