The Ugly Swans

The Strugatsky brothers’ novella The Ugly Swans was first published abroad and only during perestroika was it issued in Russia. It is a story about a ghost town in an unnamed country where it rains constantly.
In the town there is a boarding school for gifted children, and their teachers, the “wet ones,” are either mutants or aliens.
Among the children at the boarding school is the daughter of writer Viktor Banev, who is forced to begin his own investigation of the situation, joining the struggle not only for the fate of these children and his daughter, but also for the form of the Future humanity will choose.