During the long winters, humanity learned to hibernate, taking the drug so as not to dream, having previously stocked fat and overgrown with winter hair. Charlie Worthing is no longer satisfied with being an "errand boy" at the Shelter, and he decides to enlist in the service of the Winter Consul, to guard people during hibernation. Dangerous work leads him to Sector Twelve, where people have the same "viral" dreams. Worthing will have to complete the investigation of the mentor killed through his fault. Legends about the Winter People here become a harsh reality, and everything turns out to be even more complicated.