Book 2 of the 'Empire at the Edge' series (in the "Additional materials" there are 2 alternative endings of the book). A newcomer from 2017 worked on a collective farm in 1977 and returns home to Gorky, finally formulates what he is going to do (Dr. Badmaev’s theory), arranges the country’s first HOA in his house, tries to put together a group of like-minded people, falls in love and loses his love, speculates in coins and jeans, with varying degrees of success, and does much more. In the end, you end up with a broken trough... well, not a completely broken trough, but a very crumpled trough. He tells himself that he lost the battle, but not the battle, and is ready to continue what he started, already studying at the polytechnic.