One night someone in a white toga sneaks into a bookcase in Markian's room. The boy wakes up, but notices only a stork flying outside the window over the winter lake Okonsky. After this mysterious meeting, Markian finds himself in a purple-blue fog that opens the gate to a world "against heaven on earth", where the boy is awaited by brave Iranians and clumsy and at the same time formidable mobodryls, caring house and creatures with stone souls.