Vasily Alekseevich Lebedev's novel is dedicated to Russia, Russian people in the most difficult period after the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century. The events of the novel take place in Veliky Ustyug and Moscow. The life of people of different classes, their work, life are described reliably and very colorfully. The writer draws interesting portraits of peasants, blacksmiths, archers, as well as Tsar Mikhail Romanov, Patriarch Filaret, members of the Boyar Duma, clerks and solicitors. The main characters of the book are the family of Ustyuzhan Virichev, skilled blacksmiths, watchmakers, hardworking, talented and inquisitive. It was they who had the most difficult task - to create a grandiose clock with bells for battle on the Florovskaya (now Spasskaya) tower of the Kremlin.