The beginning of the eighties. An industrial city working for the “defense industry,” its outskirts, a gas-filled patch of space where black pipes smoke among grim factory buildings, and all around stand identical five-story prefab apartment blocks like twins. In such surroundings pass the childhood and the beginning of youth of two “sworn enemies” and the girl they are both in love with—the main characters of Vladimir Shpakov’s novel “Songs of Whales.” And no one can even imagine what dramatic changes await the fate of the city, the country, and their own lives.