Our desires, aspirations—and ultimately our very life—depend far too much on the biological processes of the body. That’s the bleak conclusion Olga Lugovskaya reaches at the age threshold that delicately gets called “post-Balzac.” But how is she supposed to live, if it turns out that human relationships are governed only by primitive laws? Everything that seemed so solid—happy marriage, a kind, finely organized world—doesn’t survive a simple test of age. Maybe Mom’s advice won’t help? After all, Mom has a completely different “test” behind her—war. And still, something common does exist in the fates of different generations of the Lugovskys: a single, very precise tuning fork.