Germany, Baltic Sea coast, May 1945, a few days before the end of World War II. A small Soviet patrol arrives at an isolated house where an elderly baroness gives shelter to a group of orphan girls and a boy who is determined to continue the fight.
Cold War adversaries Col. Jack Knowles and his Russian counterpart, Col. Valachev, are stationed on opposite sides of the German-Czech border. Both men are responsible for a group of troops in their remote settings, and both have been shaped by their combat experiences and a shared aversion to their superiors' ways of doing things. After a defector is killed, things escalate into a full-fledged battle with serious geopolitical ramifications.
The story takes place in the not too distant future, when heart extraction is an everyday surgical operation.
The main character is a young girl Masha, an employee of the bank and an incorrigible romantic. Her unlucky marriage breaks up, and the girl is trying to arrange her personal life. Masha meets three men. One is a famous TV presenter, the second is a famous musician, and the third is a scandalous politician. But ... disappointment follows disappointment. And as soon as the girl decides to start a new life, suddenly happiness comes in her life in the person of the long-awaited man whom she was looking for ...
