After the battle on the Borodino field, heaps of human and horse bodies are left behind— the commanders of both armies have no time for them. A young wife of a missing Russian general arrives at this terrible place, one that looks like a Martian landscape. But instead of her beloved—alive or dead—she finds a strange creature in the horse’s belly, in which it is hard to recognize a person. This centaur isn’t on the list of fallen soldiers, just as he isn’t among the killed horses. His name is Jonah.