Moscow was quiet here, in an area called Blushusha. Firsov looked around the neighborhood and experienced a beautiful and aching emptiness, familiar from experience, when a handful of human destinies ripened in him just like before for other books.

And then Firsov saw in reality that Nikolka Zavarikhin came to Moscow from the village. He ran to his uncle, then went around his fellow countrymen and found out that his capital was not enough for a commercial initiative in the city.

With grief, Zavarikhin took a walk in the pub. A magnificent beauty came to the stage, but here a certain gentleman in a raccoon coat and the same expensive hat attracted the attention of all visitors. Hidden power was felt behind his restraint. That was the famous thief-bear cub (specialist in safes) Mitya Vekshin.

More recently, Vekshin was, as they said, almost the commissar of a small cavalry unit. His exaltation was interrupted by one incident: Vekshin crippled an unarmed captive lieutenant boy, then fell into a binge, and the secretary of the regimental cell, Artashes, was forced to write a report to his best friend in the political department of the division. Vekshin was removed from office and expelled from the party. When the civilian ended, Vekshin arrived in the capital. He looked at the bait of NEP with contempt of the tamer. Suddenly, a trifling street scene with Nepmansh — at the entrance to a chic deli, a dressed-up lady clapped his hand, mistakenly believing that Vershin was eager to enter before her — destroyed his confidence of the winner.

By night, Vekshin got drunk in an ugly slum, and soon became a sidekick of the gang. He tried to assure himself that he was partisan against the old world. Together with the master of the "train" Vasily Vasilyevich, they stole a suitcase from a compartment neighbor. It included female rags, circus tackle and photography. It was from her that Mitya realized that he had robbed his sister Tatyanka, who had run away from home as a child and now became the famous aerial acrobat Gela Welton. All this was established by the writer Firsov.

In the past, there was also another character - the black-skinned beauty Masha Dolomanova. At first, they had a childhood friendship, renewed every summer at the time of Mashin's holidays. But over the years, something completely different between them ripened ... and broke off. They did not see each other for several years.

Then the meeting did happen. Tired and grimy, the matured Vekshin walked from work and met an unrecognizably flourishing, elegant Masha under a lace umbrella. The girl recognized through fuel oil and soot, called to Mitya, and he turned away. Apparently, pride turned out to be stronger than affection. He didn’t want him to think that he, a starving man, was marking prosperous Dolomanov’s son-in-law.

Soon Mitya became an assistant driver, met with political parties. At the bottom of his chest invariably lay a cheap little ring with turquoise, which was not presented to Masha, bought from the very first earnings. But Masha never forgot Mitya.

The fateful evening of early spring, she suffered in impassable wilderness. Even Firsov could not understand why. Suddenly, Agey Stolyarov, the famous robber and murderer, came to the shore of the lake and took her. When Ageyka offered Masha a life together, she agreed. So, there was something worthy in her terrible fiance, which Firsov had not consciously shown.

So Masha became a thief Manka Blizzard. And when she met Mitya, she promised: for giving her to the vile Agey, whom even thieves shunned, let him not expect mercy from her. Even the little ring with turquoise did not soften her. She said bluntly that she would make proud Mitya “worse than those” whom he now despises. Stained with his innocent blood. And the little ring, she said, was useful to her. Masha only Tatyanka admitted that it was Mitya who had made an appointment for her in the wilderness (so that he wouldn’t get caught by the police), but he wouldn’t come, staying on party work.

Soon Mitya went to work with Agey and, only when he opened the safe, did he learn that he had robbed an institution where the head was an old friend of Artashes. The hacked safe left evidence - that same ring. But Artashes, recognizing the ring, on occasion returned it to its owner.

Nikolka Zavarikhin, meanwhile, opened his own trade - and fell in love with Gela Welton, that is, Tanya Vekshin. And Tanya is in it. The kind girl clearly recognized how this rude, assertive bargainer did not fit her. But she was looking for support. A misfortune happened to her: in the arena, fear began to conquer her. Strength and confidence came from Nikolka to her.

One night, returning from the groom, Tanya met Firsov and asked bluntly: how many pages in his story remained for her share?

The writer went to Masha and gave a stormy speech, explaining that his writing power only seems illusory, but in fact his kingdom is from this world, that he can lead Masha through the crowd of characters, give her power to decide their fate ....

Nobody interfered with their conversation, since Masha, under suspicious circumstances, was widowed and inspired the thief Donka, who had long and hopelessly in love with her, either as a bodyguard or as a gatekeeper. The handsome Donka served her as a slave, but did not hide her hopes for the future. Vekshina was very worried about such a machine neighborhood, but he could not do anything: he fell asleep once and was forced to leave Moscow.

Vekshin went to his homeland. Looking for his father (as it turned out later, the deceased), he unexpectedly ended up at the wedding of his stepbrother Leonty. Then he spent several homeless nights in nature, pondering his life and earthly destiny. In it, "the image of electric reins, capable of not only curbing, but also saturating with the highest historical meaning ... matured human densely flowing earlier in the lowlands of history."

In his difficult state of mind, Vekshin somehow did not react too violently to the death of his sister. Tanya’s fears were justified: she crashed, fulfilling her crown number, Strove. The thoughts of Mitya took revenge on the opponent, as he began to suspect, now already successful. He had already forgotten what exactly the revengeful Masha wanted to make him, and he conceived a cunning plan for the destruction of Donka on the rule, that is, a thieves' court of honor.

In Firsov's story, it was picturesque that Vekshin was traveling somewhere in the Trans-Siberian distance after the murder of Donka, how he got out on a random stop, where he was lodged by lumberjacks ... But in reality, his fallen hero had a completely different social reforging.

Either the writer described Vekshin's life path as a shaky bridge from crime to enlightenment, or he used the character’s biography as a blank to try on some of his thoughts “about the culture and stuffing of the human ...”

The writer Firsova was visited by a middle-aged woman - that was his muse, who served the term of Manka Blizzard. Something told the author about the future fate of his characters. The writer did not notice when and how she managed to leave the bouquet under the draft epilogue.