It is unknown by whom and how the perfect gap between time and space plunges the planet into chaos. The crew of the UN observation plane, astronauts from the Mir station, British soldiers from the time of Queen Victoria, primitive people, soldiers of Alexander the Great and warlike nomads of Genghis Khan - from now on they are all characters in one drama, which is observed by strange spherical objects hanging in the air. Who sent them? For what? Are they indifferent spectators? Or judges? The novel by science fiction classic Arthur C. Clarke, co-written with Stephen Baxter, is being published in Russian for the first time.