Success in work and rapid advancement through the ranks turned the young, capable geologist and prospector Andrei Chernogorov into a dry, selfish careerist. Simple, human relationships ceased to exist for him. Varya, Andrei’s wife, a collector by profession, having separated from her husband, leaves to look for a zirconium deposit. After some time, Andrei was sent to the same survey party. Arriving in the desert among ordinary people with their harsh, working everyday life, he begins to realize that he behaved unworthily.