Much of what is told in this novel actually happened, the names of a number of characters are genuine. Ekaterina Matveeva wrote, in fact, an autobiographical book, recreating the story of a young girl who experienced all the horrors of Stalin’s camps. The story of her relationship with the world, which from understandable and “correct” suddenly turned into absurd and inhumane, shrinking to a piece of land behind barbed wire. But even there, Nadya Mikhailova - beautiful, naturally endowed with wonderful talent - is trying to build her destiny to the best of her ability, despite everything, maintaining faith in the laws of good and evil. Perhaps it is love that helps her to endure, to endure - real love, the kind that happens once in a lifetime. So what is next? Then there was a free life with its trials and discoveries. But this life also turned out to be similar to a cage - only larger in size. The television series "The Story of a Prisoner" is a screen version of the novel.