The family drama of the book's characters unfolds against the backdrop of a tense political confrontation between the USSR and Western European powers, in which the main character, on duty, takes a very direct part. The time period is between the conclusion of the Munich Agreement of the four Western powers on the transfer of the Sudetenland to Hitler and the entry of Soviet troops into the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. What is this: historical reconstruction? political fiction? erotic drama? a current allusion to the turning points of past days? Together. This is the new book by Vyacheslav Rybakov, who has maintained an intriguing literary silence for the last five years.