The heroes of Anna Matveeva's stories persistently search for their time and place. A teacher in love with an eleventh-grader dreams of England. The boy hopes that his parents will be together again, and that instead of the fictitious lake on stage, the real thing will return to him, and with him his old life. An imperceptibly matured girl regrets the past that never happened; the old maid is still waiting for her impossible future. The wife of an unsuccessful writer is deceived by dreams of the literary Parnassus, and he sees himself young, among old friends. “After all, there is nothing worse than finding out your place and time.” No less scary is knowing it and not being able to find it.