A group of scientists unexpectedly disappears in the Novosibirsk Zone. Ruslan Gromov is a pilot of a rescue helicopter. He decides not to delay and, breaking orders, flies out to search for his colleagues. But the anomaly, the plane crash, a wounded comrade, the lack of supplies, and the Zone — a terrible place that knows no mercy — turn Ruslan himself from a rescuer into a victim who needs help. What’s more, in a nearby abandoned settlement, the military is carrying out some terrible scheme. Hard trials fall to the lot of an ordinary pilot who, in the Zone, has never really been — yet the hardships he has endured temper him and make him stronger.