- These frank, unsparing, and varied stories by women in their twenties and thirties reveal the evolution of women"s consciousness in Russia through two decades of violent social upheaval - including the dramatic monologue of a teenage girl who grew up in an orphanage; an escape to the Altai Mountains and the mysterious local rites and lore; the seamy side of Siberian business and a young man"s failure to get to grips with it; the tricky backstage life of a provincial theater; the private life of a wealthy family which mirrors the social stratification in Russian society today.