October 1941. German troops are approaching Moscow, and the psychiatric hospital named after such-and-such, operating under dire conditions, awaits the order to evacuate. In this atmosphere of anxious anticipation, the characters' emotions reach a fever pitch, and hospital and military life become increasingly tangible. The story of those in mortal danger, patients and medical staff, unfolds into a multilayered allegory, intertwining military historical reality and poetic fiction, selfless heroism and madness, fear and hope. The author spent many years preparing to write this book, drawing on the story of the difficult evacuation of the Alekseyev Hospital in Moscow (better known as 'Kashchenko'). Linor Goralik is a writer, poet, and journalist, a lecturer at the National Research University Higher School of Economics and the Shaninka School of Public Health.