The story of three generations of the Chernousov family, who left the Tver village in the sixties for the virgin lands advertised by Soviet propaganda. There was no heroism or work enthusiasm - the head of the family, Ilya Chernousov, just wanted to make a career, which seemed impossible for him in the unpromising Non-Black Earth Region. But the family did not take root in the Virgin Lands. Only Ilya remained there until the end of his days, never rising above the foreman. And his wife, children, and, in the end, even grandchildren from his second wife, all returned to their historical homeland. Having never settled the Virgin Lands, they return to the homeland of their ancestors, which also remained unsettled, and not only because the Non-Black Earth Region has always was financed on a residual basis. In the twentieth century, there was simply no one to develop the original Russian land - virgin lands, shock Komsomol construction projects, growing cities sucked out, bled the Central Russian villages.