Through the fate of Larochka, the main character of the novel, an analysis of a huge and controversial period of the country's recent history is undertaken. The novel traces the fate of the heroes, their lives against the backdrop of the complex, multi-layered collapse of the Union. The novel is the story of the gradual transformation of a pretty provincial excellent student into a shark of the pen of perestroika times. Then she becomes a Duma figure in the 2000s. Larisa Koneva and her men: father-officer, friends, lovers, comrades-in-arms, poets, artists, deputies, generals, millionaires, black marketeers, oppositionists. Relationships with all these characters directly or indirectly influence and “hone” the gentle female soul.