A story about a lost expedition in the taiga wilderness of Lake Baikal, during which a group of explorers discovers the same dead WWII pilot lying forever in the same pose. With each discovery, another member of the expedition dies in a mysterious way—before that, through a time wormhole, they have visited different historical epochs of the planet. Eight pilots—eight deaths. The only one left alive is the last member of the team, who is ultimately taken by the “owner” of Baikal—some entity, an incarnation of an alien civilization from Taprobana.