A story about the life of our contemporary Alexander Novgorodtsev, forty-two years old, from his four friends, each of whom defends his own version of what happened.

But, no matter how much all four of them disagree in their assessment of certain events, they agree on one thing: their Sashka is the last romantic idealist who managed to perform an "ordinary miracle", usually called "success", to reach "amazing heights" and at the same time not bend one iota to the changing world.

The boaster Valentin, the emotional Mikhail, the gallant Igor and the reasonable Veniamin lead their narrative.