The action of Alla Khemlin's novel takes place in a provincial Ukrainian city from 1941 to 1961. The characters are trying to build their lives in a new way, trying to tame their own destinies, but they resist. Bright plans that promise joyful experiences and dazzling delights of the senses turn into a murky reality. Frozenness is the form of existence of heroes. This is the very veil of Maya through which they look at the world, no longer trying to understand whether it exists or not. The speech element unfolding in Khemlin’s book is akin to the musical element. Transitions from the funny to the tragic, from the rational to the irrational, from hope to existential horror, from the norm to the anomaly occur, as in music - with one bar, with one sentence. Language as a metaphysical essence resists the all-consuming Time, preserves people and eras.