Petrovich is a disgraced writer who now works as a janitor in a typical "public" Russian apartment building. Once, under the Soviet regime, his works were banned, which had earned him some fame among bohemians. Now that he is free to publish, he writes nothing and spends his days drinking and socializing with shady characters. And when his personal fate leads him to two murders and a mental institution, the protagonist will continue to desperately try to maintain his "self" in a society that still harshly demands the resignation of its members. A great Russian novel rooted in the Dostoevskian tradition, a penetrating and sensitive look at present-day post-Soviet Russia, a dive into the sea of those "underground" heroes who illuminated Russian literature.