The story opens with the revelation that wolves have returned to the White Forest, where most of this story takes place. The protagonist is a woman named Vera, who as a child accidentally turned her own mother in to the Communist authorities, which resulted in her mother’s ruthless execution in the wilderness after her imprisonment. Vera is struggling financially, barely making ends meet and must do something to survive. Desperate, she allows the drug dealing Kolya to set up shop at her house, packaging drugs on her table.

Meanwhile, Vera receives a visit from her daughter, Lydia, who comes home from Glendale, California, where she lives with an American piano tuner named Gilbert. After Lydia witnesses Kolya’s drug activities at her mother’s house, she confronts her mother and drunkenly tells her friends about the operation. Kolya murders Lydia to keep her quiet, and Vera has once again indirectly caused the death of a family member.

The story ends with a visit from Kolya to Vera’s house after Lydia’s murder. He tells her that he is taking a job as a contract soldier, presumably to escape criminal investigation, and she doesn’t have to worry about him taking any violent action against her.