About the title
In the spring-summer period of 2022, in a village on the shore of the Azov Sea estuary, where a once majestic bridge was dismantled for scrap after the collapse of the USSR, life flows to the steady hum of an old ferry. Its captain, Konstantinych, embodies devotion to his work and his land. He doesn't just carry people across — he feels a deep connection with every resident and his native land. Yet behind his outward simplicity hides an astonishing dream: using his own blueprints, Konstantinych is building a time machine. His ambitious goal is to travel to the year 1852 and persuade Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol not to destroy the second volume of "Dead Souls." This strange idea provokes more surprise and smiles than condemnation among his fellow villagers, and some even share his enthusiasm. So this fantastical time-machine venture becomes for them a symbol of hope and the yearning for change.