The Horseshoe Lake, hidden from outsiders amid impenetrable anomalies, won’t let lovers of easy profit be at peace. After all, in the middle of the lake, in a floating house, lives an old stalker who, according to rumors, has accumulated quite a number of rare artifacts. But the Zone gives nothing just like that.
Not to the Freedom stalkers who have struck a temporary alliance with bandits, not to the Duty stalkers who thirst for revenge for fallen comrades, and not to military stalkers who have been ordered to find and return a certain person at any cost. The Zone will gather them on the shores of the lake and give them a chance to find out which of them is worthy of the Horseshoe’s treasures. But only two mutants at the center of events—who still consider themselves human—understand that the true treasure cannot be carried away in a backpack.