The Ugly Swans

The writer, Viktor Banev, is seconded to the UN mission in Tashlinsk, a Zone town shrouded in perpetual rain and mist. In reality Banev has come in search of his daughter Ira who is living in a boarding school for gifted children run by mysterious mutants called mokretsy (the wet ones). When the authorities plan to destroy the Zone together with its inhabitants, Viktor decides to rescue Ira.