In the hot air of the Moscow summer, like poplar fluff, the tart aroma of passion hovers. The heroes of Nikolai Novikov's novel are seized by a crazy love fever. What is stronger - love or money, self-sacrifice or fear of death, risk or cold calculation? They have to find out all this by going through a variety of - sometimes funny, sometimes tragic - tests that replace each other, like the bright and colorful patterns of a kaleidoscope.