The events take place in a fictional South Africa, where a group of neo-fascists conduct secret experiments on people, using psychological weapons.

After a painful break up a journalist is traveling to the Elbrus mountains where he meets another woman.

The story is about how Ivar Kareno tries to publish his philosophical work, refusing to remove radical passages at the professor's request, and fails, being left without a publication, a doctorate, money and a wife.

Alexander Demin and Vassa Druzhinina fell in love with each other in their school years. In the thirties, due to the unjust arrest of her father, Vassa left a small Volga town. They later met, but the war kept them apart until the spring of 1945.