The action takes place at the beginning of our century, in the central zone of Russia. The main character, Andrey, an office worker, fired due to another crisis, goes on a journey along a forest river in search of an old man who left civilization many years ago. In order to find out from him how adequate such a reaction is to the ordinariness of everyday life. Along the way, Andrei encounters seemingly random people and phenomena, but each such meeting evokes emotional efforts and memories in him, leading to an awareness of his own purpose in this world. As a conclusion, one of the book’s heroes formulates in the last chapter: “By the age of forty, a person should have in his head an already formed, integral system of the world, and not a collection of disparate facts.”