Confessional days : in anticipation of the end of the world / Nina Gorlanova -- Election day / Galina Volodina -- Day of the poplar flakes / Marina Paley -- Clean zone / Irina Polianskaya -- She who bears no ill / Yelena Tarasova -- Speak, Maria! / Tatiana Nabatnikova -- Mashka and Asiunia / Natalia Shulga -- In the here and there / Valeria Narbikova -- Touched / Nina Sadur.
Summary
Nine stories by Russian women. In She Who Bears No Ill, a woman disfigured by a disease prefers to be locked up in a mental institution rather than be looked at with repugnance outside, while The Day of the Poplar Flakes describes the shoddy treatment of terminally ill patients in a provincial hospital.