The new book by the famous Russian writer Boris Minaev is a documentary novel consisting of separate short stories. In the center of each of them is an amazing man, a hero of the era, typical, but unlike anyone else. The artist Dmitry Vrubel, the critic Lev Anninsky, the writer Arkady Lvov, the director Alexander Kalashnikov and many others — all of them continue to live in the author's mind as messengers of the thinking ocean, whose name is our time. Without them, who are so close, it is difficult to survive today's ordeal and simply survive.