Leningrad is still alive: children play in the courtyards, radio voices can be heard through the windows, people believe the reports and wait for the enemy to be driven back soon.
But modern microbiologist Alexander Sheremetyev, who on June 23, 1941 ends up in the body of a young lab assistant, knows: in two and a half months, a ring of the blockade will close around the city—"one hundred twenty-five blockade grams with fire and blood mixed in," frozen apartments, sleds carrying bodies on winter streets.
In his future, his family has already perished from starvation, and he will not let it happen a second time. He has no army or authority—only knowledge, a laboratory, and a few weeks to seize equipment, save strains, and set up the production of protein, alcohol, and medicines.
The fascists want to starve Leningrad. Sheremetyev will make it so that instead of a dead city they get a living fortress.
His front is the laboratory. His enemy is Hunger. The fascist will be beaten. And those whom history condemned will live to see Victory.