The action takes place in Moscow. Several months have passed since Sergei Afanasevich Troitsky died. His wife Olga Vasilievna, a biologist, still cannot recover from the loss of her husband, who died at the age of forty-two years from a heart attack. She still lives in the same apartment with his mother Alexandra Prokofievna, an old-school woman. Alexandra Prokofievna is a lawyer by profession, a pensioner, but gives advice in the newspaper. She blames Olga Vasilyevna for Sergey’s death, reproaching her with the fact that Olga Vasilyevna bought a new TV set, and this shows, in her opinion, that the daughter-in-law is not very saddened by her husband’s death and is not going to deny herself entertainment. She does not recognize her right to suffering.

However, Alexandra Prokofievna had a difficult relationship with her son. Olga Vasilyevna vindictively recalls that he did not like the excessive straightforwardness of her mother, whom she was proud of, her categoricalness, bordering on intolerance. This intolerance also manifests itself in relations with sixteen-year-old granddaughter Irina. Grandmother promised her money for winter boots, but she doesn’t give it only because Irina is going to buy them from speculators. The daughter is outraged, Olga Vasilyevna pities Irina, who was left without a father so early, but she also knows her character, as strange as Sergey’s: something unstable, harsh ...

Everything that surrounds Olga Vasilievna is connected for her with memories of Sergey, whom she really deeply loved. The pain of loss does not go away and is not even less acute. She recalls their whole life together, starting from the very first day of dating. She was introduced to Troitsky by a friend of her friend Vlad, who was then a student at the medical institute. Sergei, a student of history, masterly read the words the other way around and on the very first evening ran for vodka, which did not immediately please the mother of Olga Vasilievna, who also wanted her reliable and prudent Vlad to become her husband. However, everything happened differently. The decisive event in the relationship between Olga Vasilievna and Sergey was a trip to Gagra with her friend Rita and the same Vlad. Gradually, Olga Vasilievna and Sergey began a serious romance.

Even then, Olga Vasilievna began to pick up something shaky in his character, which later became the subject of special worries for her and caused a lot of suffering - primarily because of the fear of losing Sergey. It seemed to her that it was precisely because of this property that another woman could lead him away. Olga Vasilievna was jealous not only of the new women who appeared on Sergey’s horizon, but also of those who were before her. One of them, named Svetlanka, appeared immediately after their return from the south and blackmailed Sergei with an imaginary pregnancy. However, Olga Vasilievna managed to overcome this test, as she herself determined the onslaught of the rival. And a month later there was a wedding.

At first they lived with the mother of Olga Vasilyevna and her stepfather, the artist George Maximovich. Once George Maximovich studied in Paris, he was called "Russian Van Gogh." He destroyed the old works and now lives pretty tolerably, drawing ponds and groves, being a member of the procurement commission, etc. A gentle and kind man, George Maximovich once showed firmness. Then Olga Vasilievna became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion, because circumstances didn’t matter: Sergei had a falling out with the director of the museum and wanted to leave, she worked at school, it was far to go to work, money was bad. George Maximovich, accidentally learning, categorically forbade, thanks to which Irinka was born. Olga Vasilievna also had problems in that house, in particular because of the wife of the artist Vasin Zika. Sergei often ran away to Vasin, especially in moments of anguish, because he left the museum and did not know where to put himself. Olga Vasilievna was jealous of Sergei to Zika, they often quarreled over her. With Zika herself, after a short friendship, Olga Vasilievna established hostile relations. Soon, Sergei's sister died, and they moved to Shabolovka's mother-in-law.

Remembering, Olga Vasilyevna asks herself, what really was their life with Sergey - good, bad? And is there really her fault in his death? When he was alive, she felt rich, especially next to Faina's best friend, whose personal life did not work out. Faina, she said yes, good. And what was she really like? One thing is clear to her: it was their life and together they made up a single organism.

After forty, according to Olga Vasilievna, like many men at this age, emotional turmoil took hold. At the institute, where his friend Fedya Praskukhin dragged him, it began: promises, hopes, projects, passions, groups, dangers at every turn. It seems to her that he was ruined by throwing. He was carried away, then cooled down and was eager for something new. Failures deprived him of strength, he bent, weakened, but some core inside him remained untouched.

For a long time Sergey was busy with the book “Moscow in the Eighteenth Year”, he wanted to publish, but nothing came of it. Then a new topic appeared: the February Revolution, the Tsarist secret police. Already after the death of Sergey, they came to Olga Vasilyevna from the institute and asked to find a folder with materials - supposedly in order to prepare Sergey’s work for publication. These materials, including lists of secret agents of the Moscow secret police, are unique. To confirm their authenticity, Sergei searched for people associated with those on the lists, and even found one of the former agents - Koshelkov, born in 1891 - alive and well. Olga Vasilievna went with Sergei to the village near Moscow, where this purse lived.

Sergey was looking for threads connecting the past with an even more distant past and with the future. Man for him was a thread stretching through time, the subtlest nerve of history, which can be split off, distinguished and - from it to determine a lot. He called his method “tearing graves”, but in reality it was a touch of thread, and he began with his own life, with his father, after the civil activist of education, a student at Moscow University who participated in a commission that took apart the archives of the gendarme administration. Here was the source of Sergei’s hobby. In his ancestors and in himself, he found something in common - disagreement.

Sergei eagerly engaged in a new study, but everything began to change dramatically after the death of his friend Fedi Praskukhin, a secretary of the institute who died in a car accident. Olga Vasilievna then did not let Sergei go with him and another of their old friends Gena Klimuk to the south. Klimuk, who was also in the car, remained alive, he took the place of the scientist-secretary instead of Fedi, but their relations with friends from Sergei quickly became hostile. Klimuk turned out to be an intriguer, he called on Sergey to create his own “small, cozy little bandage” with him. Once there was an opportunity to go on a tourist trip to France. For Sergey, this was not only an opportunity to see Paris and Marseille, but also to search for materials necessary for work. Much depended on Klimuk. They invited him and his wife to the cottage in Vasilkovo. Klimuk arrived, bringing with him also the deputy director of the Kislovsky Institute with some girl. Klimuk asked to let those spend the night. Olga Vasilievna opposed. Then, between the tipsy Klimuk and Sergey, a fierce debate arose over historical expediency, which Sergey denied, quiping jokingly: “I wonder who will determine what is expedient and what is not? The Scientific Council by a majority vote? ”

But even after this skirmish, Sergei continued to hope for a trip to France. Georgy Maksimovich promised to give part of the money, who decided to solemnly arrange the delivery of the amount, since he had nostalgic memories with Paris. Olga Vasilievna and Sergey went to him, but it all ended with almost a scandal. Annoyed by the statements of his father-in-law, Sergei unexpectedly refused money. Soon the question of the trip disappeared: the group was reduced, and Sergei, it seems, had cooled down. Shortly before discussing the dissertation, Klimuk persuaded Sergei to give some materials to Kislovsky, who needed them for his doctorate. Sergey refused. The first discussion of the dissertation failed. This meant that protection was delayed indefinitely.

Then came Daria Mamedovna, an interesting woman, philosopher, psychologist, specialist in parapsychology, who was said to be unusually intelligent. Sergey became interested in parapsychology, hoping to extract something useful for his research. Once, together with Olga Vasilievna, they participated in a seance, after which Olga Vasilievna had a conversation with Daria Mammadovna. She was worried about Sergey, his relationship with this woman, and Daria Mammadovna was interested in the problems of biological incompatibility, which Olga Vasilievna was engaged in as a biochemist. The main thing was that Sergei was estranged, living his own life, and Olga Vasilyevna was hurt.

After the death of Sergey Olga Vasilyevna it seems that life is over, there was only emptiness and cold. However, unexpectedly for her, another life begins: a person appears with whom she has a close relationship. He has a family, but they meet, go for a walk in Spasskoye-Lykovo, talk about everything. This person is dear to Olga Vasilievna. And she thinks that she is not guilty, because another life is around.