The novel takes place in a rear reserve regiment. The second year of the Great Patriotic War is underway. The novel’s heroes are junior lieutenant Zuyev, soldiers and officers who have already tasted this war and are maimed by it. While their wounds heal, they serve in the reserve regiment, which prepares reinforcements for the front. The unbearably difficult everyday life of the regiment and the complex relationships among the heroes are drawn with talent and psychological accuracy by the well-known Siberian prose writer.