The defense of his doctoral dissertation by the chief of the hero of the story seemed to him an event of enormous importance, a measure of the canons of morality of the Department of Ammunition, the source of future changes. During perestroika, everything changed in its own way. However, past events did not lose their significance in the life of the hero of the story. The knot of the plot, tied during the defense of the dissertation, untied far from its former places, in the capital of America.