“The branch of the city children's library, where Dasha worked for fourteen years (with five maternity leaves), unexpectedly closed, and she found no other place in the centralized library system. Dasha received severance pay for two months, then, contrary to her husband’s persuasion, she got a job as a packer at a dairy factory. The monotonous work tired her unbearably. She spent the afternoon hours standing at the conveyor belt on the verge of unconsciousness, with a numb lower back and a flaming ball of nausea in her throat, afraid that she was about to collapse onto the moving belt. And who, please tell me, came up with the law of meanness - fate or chance or this cute couple acting together? However, it doesn't matter. It is important that, according to the law of meanness, Dasha fainted at the director’s feet when he honored the workshop with his visit. The next day, the director called the low-power worker into the office and offered to quit in an amicable way, since production was suffering a loss with her frequent bulletins...”