The first book of the novel—written by an eyewitness and participant in events—tells about the beginning of development of the Kolyma gold-industry region in the 1930s by the specific methods of Dalstroi. The author creates credible portraits of the first builders: geologists, road workers, gold miners. The previous edition of the trilogy’s two books was published twenty-five years ago and is still exceptionally popular, because it was the first attempt by a Magadan writer to create a truthful piece of fiction about the corrective labor camps of Kolyma.