Aleksey Shipenko

Events take place in the White Sea, 1942. New recruit Andrei Bulygin is assigned as an assistant machine gunner on a small ship that delivers soldiers and weapons to the front line. On the way back, German fighters sink the ship, leaving only Andrei alive. Having got out on the ice, he enters into an unequal battle with the cold and the German pilot von Bettger attacking him from the air...

In a search of a peaceful retreat, a writer will find something both achingly familiar and long forgotten.