The book is rooted in the Orthodox legend of ‘Zoya’s Standing’ in Kuibyshev; in the author’s own words, it is a philosophical novel about modern man’s rejection of the miraculous. In the provincial backwater of Grechansk, the impossible occurs. A young woman named Tatiana gathers her friends for a dance party; finding herself without a partner, she invites... Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker to dance. But the moment she grasps his icon, she freezes instantly, transforming into a motionless statue—and no one—neither doctors, nor a priest, nor even Nikita Khrushchev (who happens to be visiting the town)—can do anything to help her... ‘I wanted to write a metaphor for what happened to our people in the 20th century—a people who turned away from God, were struck down and punished for it, yet for whom there remains hope of recovery.’ — Yuri Arabov.