Ladies in Self-Isolation

The second wave of the coronavirus epidemic. Everyone who can isolates themselves at their dachas. Those who don’t have dachas but do have money rent houses in the countryside. Unlike during the first wave, a lockdown isn’t declared, and work is permitted for country hotels and tourist bases. Escaping the treacherous infection, three completely unfamiliar women head to one of these tourist bases near St. Petersburg: Ludmila, the wife of a successful businessman; Xenia, an aspiring writer; and Lena Shtukina, a retired police lieutenant colonel—known to readers from the novels “Kikimora of the Swamp” and “Co-Owned Property.” Together, they try to untangle the eternal questions: who’s to blame, what to do, and why men are so necessary for women.