Three stories (which Dina Rubina herself calls small stories) were written in the first and most difficult decade of emigration. Absolutely different, they have a certain common sign, like the artist’s signature seal - the image of an angel; strange, paradoxical, sometimes almost mocking. “The image of an angel, a literary angel, a guardian angel, just a passerby and almost a homeless person is one of my totems in prose, very significant for me.” So, in the story “The Camera is Moving In!” The guardian angel appears in the form of a camp guard, the one who, when the heroine tries to escape “from the zone called “life,” grabs her and drags her through the stage of life. And in the story “At Your Gates,” the heroine cannot survive without an angel: the life of a person growing into a new homeland is dangerous and difficult. Only there the angel appears in a carnival form, comforting and cheering. Suddenly finding herself on the border of life and death, the heroine of “High Water of the Venetians” settles in the Al Angelo Hotel, which became fateful for her. There is, there is One who sends us salvation. The stories of the 90s amaze with the variety of tones and rhythms: lyrical digressions alternate with expressive monologues, fast-paced plots with philosophical reflections, syncopations of dialects with the smoothness of correct speech.