Abyss
Sashuk's parents, together with the fishing team, gather at sea. The boy is taken with him, but his beloved puppy is not. From such injustice he roars all day. Finally, the team leader Ivan Danilovich intervenes and orders to take the puppy. Together with the brigade, Sashuk leaves for the first time and now is watching with interest how Uncle Semyon’s “lawn” leaves Nikolaevka, passes Lake Yalpukh and the city of Izmail. On the way, they talk about the new fisherman Zhorka. The boy’s mother, Nastya, the brigade’s cook, is unhappy: they say that Zhora was in prison. The boy was never at sea. Uncle Semyon said that the sea is without a bottom. Trying to imagine the abyss, the boy falls asleep.
He wakes up on a trestle bed in a cage room and first of all he runs to look at the sea. From amazement, even breathing becomes difficult. "So, the truth was told by Uncle Semyon that it is without a bottom, since it is so big, neither the end nor the edge." Sashuk inspects the shore. On the right you can see the booth on a high lattice tower, on the left - a pier on piles, from which some thing looks like a long rubber band rises to the shore on poles. Everything here is not the same as in Yalpukh. Even the seagulls are big and arrogant.
Cool salting
Soon the fishermen are returning. The wide rubber band at the berth turns out to be a conveyor through which caught fish is fed to the pickling workshop. On the pier, part of the tape is hidden in a large iron box, in which the fishermen begin to fill the fish. Red Zhorka begins to sort the fish and teaches Sashuk this wisdom. Zhorka gives the boy a large flounder - a brigade for lunch, and he drags her along the pier, but slips and falls on sharp fish thorns. Everyone is laughing. Sashuk chases away tears and begins to pick up the fish that has fallen from the crates. Fishermen like such housekeeping, and Zhorka says: “It will salt out as it should — the boatswain will be what is needed.” He whistles deafeningly, and the conveyor begins to move.
Zhora picks up Sashuk and puts him in a wide gutter - sends him to the shop "for pickling." The boy rises higher and becomes scared. Upstairs, in the pickling workshop, they take it out of the gutter, slap it “in the same place” and let it go. Sasha is upset - he himself did not climb into the conveyor. He decides not to talk with Zhora anymore and goes to his mother.
At dinner, one of the fishermen, Ignat Prikhodko, notices that they still took the puppy with them. The fisherman is unhappy, he considers this a pampering. Zhorka stands up for the boy - he does not like the greedy Ignat. Together with Sashuk, Zhorka comes up with a puppy's name - Beams (the beam on which the deck lies). However, the boy had not yet forgiven Zhora for the morning joke. He goes to the sea, but Zhora goes after him and talks about himself. He was in prison for beating up a tyrant boss who “muzzled” his employees, mostly women. They put him in 1952, and Zhork served five years. Instead of the word "tyrant," Sashuk remembered - "self-proud."
The night Watch
Soon they become friends. Zhorka teaches the boy to swim, not to be afraid of depth, and calls him "Boatswain." Zhorka told the boy that from the tower on the shore, border guards at night look out for violators. The ruins between the tower and the pier are an old German bunker. At this time, mother comes for Sashuk. She forbids her son to communicate with the "bandit" Zhorka. In vain does the boy try to explain that Zhora is not a bandit at all - his mother does not want to listen to him.
In the evening, the fishermen again go to sea. Sasha is bored. The ruins of the bunker are very suitable for playing war, but you won’t play with Beams - he does not understand the teams, he just runs and grabs at the heels. At the border tower, the boy sees a horse tied to the stairs, but he is afraid to approach during the day and decides to get closer to the border guards in the dark.
Waking up late at night, Sashuk slips out of the hut and heads for the tower. At the ruins, it occurs to the boy that dead fascists could remain there. He becomes scared, he “runs forward as the spirit has, stumbles upon the tower of the tower and clings to it”. Then the boy realizes that he ended up alone in the steppe at night, and between him and his parents - “a ruined pillbox and trenches with all their dead”.
Sashuk whines with fear. A border guard comes down from the tower and takes the boy upstairs. There is nothing interesting in the booth, only a door and three windows - a border guard stands next to each and peers into the darkness. At first, Sashuk does not understand how they even distinguish anything in complete darkness, but then he sees a beam of a searchlight, which periodically illuminates the coast and the sea. In the end, he falls asleep, and he dreams of a strict commander who gives the boy a real rifle and accepts into his squad.
Meanwhile, border guards notice a panic that began at the fishermen’s barracks - it was the parents who woke up and started looking for a son. Border guards pass the boy to his mother. Sashuk understands that he will be dragged in the morning, but he cries because he only dreamed of a rifle.
Astrologer
In the morning, his father gouged Sashuk by the ears, but the boy was ashamed of the fact that the fishermen laughed at him. Today was a day off, the fishermen did not go fishing, but went to the fish-trading shop. The boy’s parents went to a store located in Nikolaevka. Rybkoopovskaya shop is an iron-covered hut with a large porch. She stands not far from the hut, and behind her begins the huts of Balabanovka. Sashuk does not go there: from a distance he saw big boys and dogs in Balabanovka.
Fishermen are sitting near the bench and drinking red wine. Zhorka again bullies with Ignat, calls him a miser. Seeing the boy, Zhora leads him to the hut and gives him an amazing thing - a huge ball of green glass, wrapped in a net and overgrown with shells. Zhorka explains that this is a kitchen stove, a float from a large fishing net. In two kitchens connected by a rope, you can swim. Ignat says that a kitchen is a useless thing, and “every thing and a person should be for good,” and Sashuk should only look at business people. Zhorka is a bastard without a pair of extra pants. The boy knows this - Zhorkin’s chest never closes, and Ignat’s chest has a huge padlock.
Having hidden the kitchen under his trestle bed, Sashuk goes ashore to look for another float. On the shore, he finds only a large dead crab, and halfway to the pier he sees some kind of "freak" in his underpants, a colored shirt, a panama hat with a fringe, a beard and glasses with thick glasses. Freak tries unsuccessfully to catch a fish. Noticing Sashuk, he speaks to him. The boy wonders why he needs a beard, because he is not yet old. The man replies that he is an astrologer, and astrologers without a beard can not be. In fact, man turned out to be an astrophysicist. He brought his family to rest by the sea.
Anusya
And the truth: nearby, under a canopy, someone was lying. Sashuk is wondering - is it true that each person has his own star. The stargazer confirms: true, but everyone should find his star himself.
Soon, his daughter Anusya approaches the starship, and the boy has a friend for games. Anusya "does not at all look like broken, throaty Nekrasov girls." She is like from another world, with very white skin. Sashuk decides that "she is endlessly soaped." From great embarrassment, the boy gives Anus a dead crab. Children begin to rush along the seashore. This fun is interrupted because of Anusi's mother, a very beautiful woman. She throws out the crab and forbids her daughter to play with "this dirty boy."
From great resentment and anger, Sashuk begins to drag jellyfish out of the sea, dreaming of imposing a “malicious aunt” on them. Soon Anusya joins him, she asks not to be offended by her mother, since "she has a lot of petty-bourgeois prejudices." Children play together for a long time. Anusya manages to stain the dress in a grease spilled near the conveyor. Then Sashuk takes her to the ruins, hoping to captivate with a game of war.
Orange god
Sashuk used to live with his grandmother, who made him pray. Grandma said that God sees everything and punishes everything. God seemed to the child a malicious old man, "who punishes all nonsense." Six months ago, the grandmother died, and the boy was taken away by his parents.
Faith in God Sashuku is replaced by faith in cars. The boy is convinced that all machines - creatures that live a special secret life, "see everything, feel and, when they want, do everything of their own free will, and not at the request of a person," and even talk to each other. Until now, he had seen only trucks, but today he saw a miracle - an indescribably beautiful orange Muscovite, shining with chrome details. This miracle belongs to the starship. From the fullness of feelings, Sashuk begins to wipe the wheel cap with his shirt. Anusya does not lag behind, and her dress becomes even dirtier.
Behind this occupation, they catch a stargazer with his wife. Anusya gets scolded from her mother for a dirty dress and friendship with a dirty boy. Sashuk is again offended to tears, but he is unable to leave the orange miracle. Noticing the boy’s resentment, the stargazer allows him to ride in a car and even hum. His wife is unhappy, she believes that the "snotty cub" can be contagious. Sashuk stands for a long time near the house where the stargazer stopped, and looks at his god, and then, happy, he goes home.
Our food
At the hut, the fishermen gathered for lunch. They chuckle at the boy - Zhorka told everyone that Sashuk found himself to steal. Nastya is not feeling well, “she walks with difficulty, half-bent, her face is pale, dark circles under her eyes, and droplets of sweat have appeared on her temples.” In the evening, the mother becomes even worse, she lies in the sidewall and groans. Sasha gets scared, and he goes to the sea, looking for his star. The brigadier who met him explains that the fishermen have one star - the North, but the boy does not want the "universal", but his own.
In the morning, the mother did not get up. She called Sashuk, gave him the key to the pantry and asked him to cook dinner for the fishermen. The boy doesn’t know how to cook, and his mother directs him from bed. In the pantry there is artel fat - “three thick white layers”. Sasha really wants a piece, but he forbids himself to even think about it and cuts off as much as is needed for porridge. He cuts himself and Beams on a piece of bread.
Having run around in order and scalded once, Sashuk still manages to cook edible porridge (Conder) by the arrival of the fishermen. He happily informs the foreman that he himself cooked the Conder, because "the mother is completely sick."
Father Sashuk is preoccupied. In the nearest village there is only a paramedic, the wife needs a doctor, and there is nothing to bring her. The porridge turned out to be too steep and bitter, but to the freshly baked cook it seems to be the most delicious in the world.
Samorduy
After lunch, Sashuk helps Zhora clean and wash the cauldron, and then runs to her mother. That is really bad, and the boy becomes sad. Mother releases her son, and he goes to look at the starship car, but they are not at home. Returning to the hut, the boy meets his father - he went to the collective farm, but did not get the car.
"Sashuka is becoming increasingly anxious and confused." Suddenly, in the brigade courtyard, father and son see a "gas truck" in the back seat of which the driver is resting. In response to a request from his father, the driver sends him to his boss. It turned out to be a "well-fed, all-over" man in an embroidered shirt. Sashuk himself called him Smooth. He sat at the bench and drank wine with the foreman. Father long and humbledly begged Gladky to take the sick woman to the hospital, but he flatly refused. Unable to bear the humiliation of his father, Sashuk loudly calls Gladky “self-righteous”, for which he receives a slap from his father.
Then the boy recalls that he saw a horse at the border tower. They won’t refuse to help. Sashuk runs to the tower, but there is no one there either. Suddenly he sees an orange car on the road to the beach and, together with his father, runs towards the starship. His wife, as always, is against - afraid of infection, but the stargazer does not listen to her. Mother is laid in the back seat, father sits in front, and the car drives off. Children are not taken with them.
Kuhtyl
Mother was taken to the hospital. Ignat took up cooking instead. They didn’t take Sashuk with them for fishing, they left them on the shore and gave a “responsible assignment” - to keep an eye on the household. The “guard” approached the matter responsibly: he kept watch until the evening and didn’t go anywhere. When it got dark, the boy locked the door of the hut with a key, lit a lamp, sat down at a table in the courtyard and fell asleep.
And Sashuk had a dream about how he was going to his mother in the hospital in an orange car. The stargazer gives way to him, and the boy himself drives a car. All those who come in surprise open their mouths. On the way, they meet Gladky, asks for a ride, but Sashuk refuses him, and at the hospital they are met by their mother, who is alive and well. The watchman is awakened by the returning fishermen. The boy understands that all this is just a dream, and bursts out with a loud cry. Father carries him to the trestle bed.
In the morning, hoping that the dream will come true, Sashuk goes to the starship’s house and discovers that they are going to leave. In parting, the boy gives Anus his main treasure - the kitchen. The girl is glad, but the mother takes the gift from her and throws it aside. "The kitchen sink falls on an iron scraper for dirt near the porch and breaks with a dull splatter." Something is broken with him in Sashuk’s soul. He becomes unbearably bitter.
Kugut
Beams helps to move away from resentment. Ignat is the boss in the hut, and the boy asks him for the key to the pantry - to cut the bread for himself and Bimsu. Ignat does not give the key, he selects a small piece of bread and declares that to feed the useless puppy is pampering. Before lunch, the boy plays with Beams and imagines how he will become a seasoned dog that everyone will fear.
The brigade comes from fishing. Fishermen begin to sort the fish. Beams likes the bustle on the pier. He happily rushes about and falls under the feet of Ignat. The new cook is angry - everyone scoffs at him, they call him a cook. He kicks the puppy, he falls from the pier into the water and drowns. The puppy is caught, but he is already dead. Sashuka shakes with hatred and despair. He calls Ignat the "damned kugut." Zhora raises her hand to hit Ignat, but the team leader stops the guy in time. Together with the boy, he buries poor Beams.
At lunch, the fishermen notice that the porridge at the new cook turned out to be tasteless and fresh - there is little fat in it. Ignat claims that there is very little fat left, because "whoever wanted, he climbed into the pantry." He is trying to blame Sashuk for feeding Beams with fat. Zhora threatens to search Ignat's chest. He turns pale and gives himself out: he says that he took the fat lying in his chest from the house. Foreman Ivan Danilovich expels Ignat from the artel.
Fishermen again go to sea. The boy is left alone. It is quickly getting dark, the stars light up in the sky, but Sashuk does not see them - he is sleeping.
