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.