The protagonist finds out that some children were left behind in a sinking school, and is slowly driven mad as he tries to save them. A parable on the theme of the Last Judgment, numerous catastrophic events reveal a certain ambiguity in their origins, accompanied by the terrible suspicion that the things going on are some kind of a performance or theatrical production.
In June 1941, the Extraordinary Defense Headquarters of Leningrad, under the leadership of Zhdanov and Voroshilov, decided to build the Luga defensive line. Heavy fighting west of Pskov forced units of the front to withdraw, and on July 9, Pskov was also abandoned. The battles in the Luga direction held back the enemy. The first attacks of the Germans, intending to cross the Luga line on the move, were repulsed with heavy losses for them.
On holiday in Yalta, Muscovite banker Dimitri Gurov contrives to meet a young woman who walks her dog. She’s Anna Sergeyevna, trapped in a loveless marriage to a lackey. He’s unhappy in an arranged marriage. With neither spouse at hand, Dimitri and Anna begin an affair. After a short time, she returns to Saratov, he to Moscow, believing it’s good-by forever. All winter he is miserable, enervated, distracted by tristesse. In desperation, he contrives to go to Saratov, surprising her at a concert. Fearing discovery in her home town, she promises to come to Moscow. Will they cast aside reputation to live together, or will theirs be an affair of infrequent encounters in hotel rooms?
