Kira’s family used to be rich, respected, and well-known in Petrograd. The Civil war and the Revolution had made the Argounov family flee to Crimea where they spent several years until they decided that it was safe for them to return home. An overcrowded train took them back to Petrograd whose face was covered with the numerous scars of the civil war. The family’s house was nationalized, so they had nowhere to go but their relatives. In spite of her family’s gloominess, Kira felt happy. She knew that it was a new beginning for her. Neither hunger nor communists concerned her, for she knew what she wanted and that was a life. When she announced her decision to become an engineer, her words were met with Galina and Lydia’s – her mother and sister – irritation and Alexander Dimitrievitch’s – her father – surprise. However, the girl got used to do as she wished, so she got a labor book and entered the Institute. Unlike Kira, her father seemed to fail in everything he tried. The store he opened brought no profit and – as bourgeoisies – they had to pay a higher rent. No water, no food, no light and cold became the only things they knew.
One evening, when Kira was trying to get away from her cousin Victor, who seemed to harbor not brotherly feelings but pure lust, she got lost and met the man who played one of the most important roles in her life. His name was Leo and that was love. The young man was suspected of counter-revolutionary activity, so he could stay in the city. They agreed to meet in a month. Later on, Kira noticed a man with a scar in the Institute. As it turned out to be, the man was a hero of the civil war, the loyal communist, and the member of the G.P.U. Andrei Taganov was the person she had to hate but she couldn’t bright herself to do it, for they were too alike even though they believed in different things.
After an unfortunate attempt to flee from the country with Leo, his arrest and following release, her family’s discovery that Kira slept with him, a quarrel that made Kira to pack her things and go to Leo’s place, everything seemed to settle down a little. She was still friends with Andrei, made it up with her family and was genuinely happy. That bliss lasted but not too long. When Leo got involved into the black market business, Andrei helped him to avoid a death sentence. However, soon after that, Andrei committed suicide. Kira didn’t know what it was, her, their relationship or the revolution that killed him. She lost Andrei and then she lost Leo too, for he agreed to sell his youth, beauty, mind to a woman who could promise him the better future. Their breakup wasn’t easy for any of them, for no matter how Leo changed, deep inside he was that young man he used to be before the Revolution brought the worst in him. Kira made a decision to leave the country, she lost her battle against that state. She died alone in the field, shot in her back.
