Inna Goff is known not only as a novelist, but also as a poet, and above all as the author of the well-known songs "Russian Field", "I smile at you", "August", "When you stop loving me", "Have pity on me", which were performed by Mark Bernes, Maya Kristalinskaya, Joseph Kobzon, Anna Herman. Her prose is the prose of a poet: imaginative, sensual, lyrical.Inna Goff's works are very different: memories of her youth and wartime, research stories about the life and work of writers, impressionistic notes and travel stories about trips to Italy, Karelia, and the Moscow region.The characters in this book lived more than half a century ago, but they hoped and loved, were disappointed and continued to believe — just like we do today. The mother of her son, who has just returned from the army, is not ready for the fact that her son has grown up a long time ago and wants to get married, and is trying her best to divorce the young couple. The girl, under the dictation of her aunt, writes to a strange woman who sent her father a letter, how happily her parents live, not even suspecting what this secret prank will turn out to be. An experienced doctor who recently learned that he is seriously ill cannot share the bad news with his wife and daughter, but mentally writes farewell letters to his long-time love, which she will never read. A married couple prepares a table to meet an old friend and his "brand new" wife, but still remembers how they were all friends with his "first", Marisha, and meticulously compare.