1928. After a mission in China and Japan, Soviet intelligence officer Maxim Maksimovich Isaev is preparing to be deployed to Germany, where Hitler’s National Socialists are gaining strength. He constantly remembers fleeting moments next to his beloved. The new assignment seems to bring him closer to his homeland. But ahead is an intense struggle against fascism and another twenty years of separation. The text of the electronic publication corresponds to the edition: Semenov Yu. S. Tenderness // Semenov Yu. S. Collected Works. T. 1. Political chronicles, 1921–1927. M.: MShK MADPR, DEM, 1991.