A year has passed since the devastating nuclear war that began after a provocation on the Ukrainian border. Across the planet, only a few hundred million people remain, trying to survive amid the ruins of civilization. The urban way of life is destroyed, and all who survived have either returned to primitive scavenging on the ruins or taken up peasant life—often under harsh feudal rule.
But there is a third group of people—those ready to seize others’ property by force of arms, for whom human life means nothing. In a small Siberian town, Podgorny, an outpost led by Major-Demyanov (ret.) sums up the year in its new place. The city has organized something like peaceful life. But peace for those who survived the nuclear blaze is only a dream. An expedition to the Urals in search of a mysterious refuge in Mount Yamanatau will turn out to be the simplest of their trials.