A dead world. The surviving people, having lost the ability to bear children, found a formula for immortality—but time wears down their consciousness, and their bodies begin to decay. To avoid going mad, they erase memories from themselves, and thanks to a generator that transmits illusions into the brain, they don’t notice the external decline. Realizing the inevitability of the end, scientists strive to preserve civilization and begin to introduce humanoid machines into society. Thus, one of the robots is made to believe that he is a journalist from a neighboring town, arrived here to publish the local paper.