During a hostage rescue mission in Syria, special forces soldier Vasily Yang Gromov throws himself onto a grenade to shield the hostages. He should have died, but instead, he unexpectedly returns to the Soviet Union in 1985, back to the point when he was nineteen and joining the army as a conscript. Armed with the memories and experience of twenty-five years of military service, he starts out at the recruit assembly point. He endures monotonous boot camp drills and the old soldiers’ harassment, while his superb hand-to-hand combat skills, marksmanship, and tactical thinking attract special attention even at the recruiting station.
Yet the wheels of fate veer off course once more. He was supposed to join the GRU Special Forces Center, but an accident sends him to a border guard unit on the Turkmenistan frontier instead. There, he has to deal with the absurdities of army life and a crisis involving a mole, while also facing infiltration and attacks by Afghan militants. From quelling clashes in the barracks and uncovering a mole’s schemes to patrolling the border and rescuing survivors of a crashed plane, Vasily repeatedly defuses crises with a veteran’s wisdom and courage, protecting his comrades and civilians alike.
Back in his youth, he tries to make up for past regrets and protect the comrades he once lost, while rewriting his military life amid gunfire and fervor. On the border battlefield at the end of the Cold War, he continues the story of a Soviet soldier’s loyalty and legend.
