May 1942. Several units of the Crimean Front troops, together with the city's residents, took shelter from the bombing in the Adzhimushkay quarries. A boy who, using neural network technologies, got into the past, faces a choice: find lost artifacts or help the defenders of the quarries. And he decides to share all the hardships of this life and, most importantly, to give hope to these people.
Yekaterinburg of the 90s. A company of young poets, including the most talented — a junior researcher at the Institute of Geophysics Boris Ryzhy, wanders through the cold and dangerous streets of the city from party to party. Ironic and friendly, he can negotiate with local brothers with equal ease, drive to Moscow for the "Anti-Booker" award, fight at the stall and crash into the department.
Ivan's cat suddenly dies - that is the only thing that connected him with his ex-wife, the separation from which he still cannot survive. He cannot bury the cat: there is no money, and winter is raging on the street. His best friend Pasha comes to his aid, and he intends to arrange a funeral at all costs.
The relationship between Katya and her mother cannot be called simple anyway, but here, in the midst of the working day, Katya learns that her mother never flew with her friend to the resort, disappearing from the airport in an unknown direction. Having learned from the doctor the real reason for her mother's strange behavior, Katya not only reunites with her, but also reveals a lot of new things about her mother and herself.
In the center of the plot children's writer Valentin Shubin, accustomed to live in seclusion. His books about the elephant Mishka, written in his youth, enjoyed great success both at home and abroad. A series of random events causes a new surge of interest in the personality and creativity of the writer-introvert. Adults and young readers waiting for new books, but Shubin them does not want to write.