The books of Vera Sergeevna Novitskaya, a writer at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, were widely known and loved by girls and their parents. Vera Sergeevna knew and felt the world she wrote about—for several years Novitskaya taught at a girls’ gymnasium. It was observations of the girls that gave the writer material for her works. “First Dreams” is the last story in the collection “Halcyon Years” about Musa Starobelskaya. The reader, together with the heroine, goes through a long and difficult path - Musya turns from a carefree teenager into a girl passionate about literature, who has experienced her first love and dreams of helping people. The wonderful and sensitive language of that time paints this story in very special colors, taking us to the shady garden of a noble estate.