The action takes place at an indefinite time, most reminiscent of the beginning of our century, and the unknown state depicted on its pages is very similar to Italy. This is a novel about time eating life. The irreversibility of time is the fateful destiny of man, night is the highest point of the tragic tension of human existence.
Young lieutenant Giovanni Drogo, full of bright hopes for the future, receives an appointment to the Bastiani fortress, located next to the vast Tatar desert, where, according to legend, the enemies came from. Or didn’t come. After long wanderings, the lieutenant finally finds a way to the Fortress. During the journey, Drogo’s enthusiasm for his first appointment fades away, and the view of the fort's bare yellowish walls is completely discouraged. Major Matti, understanding the mood of the young officer, says that he can file a report on his transfer to another place. In the end, the embarrassed Drogo decides to stay in the Fortress for four months. At the request of Drogo, Lieutenant Morel leads Drogo to the wall, behind which lies a plain framed by rocks. Behind the rocks - The Unknown North, the mysterious Tatar desert. They say that there are "solid stones." The horizon there is usually foggy, but they claim that they saw either white towers, a smoking volcano, or “some kind of elongated black spot” ... Drogo couldn’t fall asleep all night: water squished behind his wall, and there’s nothing can not do it.
Soon Drogo takes up the first duty and observes the changing of the guard, carried out under the command of Senior Sergeant Tronk, who has been serving in the Fortress for twenty-two years and who knows the details of the serfdom by heart. Servant Tronk doesn’t leave the Fortress even on vacation,
At night, Drogo composes a letter to his mother, trying to convey the oppressive atmosphere of the Fortress, but in the end he writes an ordinary letter with assurances that everything is fine with him. Lying in his bunk, he hears the sentinels mournfully echoing; "... it was on this night for him that a leisurely and inexorable countdown began."
Wanting to buy an overcoat simpler than the one that was in his luggage, Drogo met a tailor Proschito, who had been repeating for fifteen years: they say he would leave here any day. Gradually, Drogo learns with surprise that there are a lot of officers in the Fortress who have been waiting for many years with bated breath when the northern desert will present them with an extraordinary adventure, “that wonderful event that everyone has at least once in their life”. After all, the Fortress stands on the border of the Unknown, and not only fears, but also hopes are associated with the unknown. “However, there are those who have the strength to serve their term and leave the Fortress, for example Count Max Latorio. Together with him, his friend, Lieutenant Angustina, also served his two years, but for some reason he decisively does not want to leave.
“Winter is coming, and Drogo is beginning to prepare for departure. It remains a trifle - to undergo a medical examination and get a paper about unsuitability for service in the mountains. However, the habit of the narrow closed world of the Fortress with its measured life takes its toll - unexpectedly for itself, Drogo remains. “There is still a lot of time ahead,” he thinks.
—Drogo goes on duty to the New Redoubt - a small fort forty minutes walk from the Fortress, standing on top of a rocky mountain above the Tatar desert itself. Suddenly, a white horse appears from the side of the desert - but everyone knows that Tatar horses are exclusively white! You, everything turns out to be much simpler - the horse belongs to Private Lazzari, she managed to escape from her master. Wanting to quickly return the mare, Lazzari gets out of the fort walls and catches her. When he returns, the password has already been changed, but he does not know a new one. The soldier hopes that, recognizing him, the comrades will let him back in, but they, following the rules and obeying the dumb order of Tronk, shoot and kill the unfortunate.
And soon on the horizon of the Tatar desert, a black human snake begins to move, and the entire garrison becomes confused. However, everything is quickly explained: it is the military units of the northern state that mark the border line. In fact, the demarcation signs were established a long time ago, only one unmarked mountain remained, and although it is not of strategic interest, the colonel sends a detachment under the command of Captain Monti and Lieutenant Angustina to get ahead of the northerners and add a couple of extra meters of territory. In his elegant uniform, the proud Angustina is completely incapable of traveling through the mountains; he catches a cold in the icy wind and dies. He is buried as a hero.
It takes several years; Drogo leaves for the city - on vacation. But there he feels like a stranger - friends are busy with affairs, his girlfriend has lost touch with him, his mother internally resigned to his absence, although she advises him to file a request for transfer from the Fortress. Drogo goes to the general, confident that his request for a transfer will be granted. But, to his surprise, the general refuses Drogo, explaining the refusal by the fact that the garrison of the Fortress is reduced and will be transferred primarily to old and honored soldiers.
In longing, Drogo returns to the Bastiani fortress. Feverish turmoil reigns there - soldiers and officers leave the garrison. Drogo’s gloomy despondency is dispelled by lieutenant Simeoni: in his spyglass, he saw on the edge of the Tatar desert some lights that either disappear or appear again and constantly make some kind of movement. Simeoni believes that the enemy is building a road. Before him, “no one has observed such a striking phenomenon, but it is possible that it has existed before, over many years or even centuries; say, there could be a village or a well to which caravans pulled in - just in the Fortress no one has ever used such a strong telescope as Simeoni had. ” But then an order prohibits the use of optical devices not provided for in the charter in the Fortress, and Simeoni hands over his pipe.
In winter, Drogo clearly feels the destructive power of time. With the onset of spring, he peers into the distance for a long time with the help of a breech pipe and one evening in the eyepiece he notices a small fluttering tongue of flame. Soon even in broad daylight, against the background of the whitish desert, you can see moving black dots. And once someone starts talking about the war, "and the seemingly unrealizable hope again breathed in the walls of the Fortress."
And about a mile from the Fortress a pillar appeared - strangers had reached the road here. The tremendous work carried out over the course of fifteen years is finally completed. “Fifteen years for the mountains is a mere trifle, and even on the bastions of the Fortress they did not leave any noticeable trace. But for people this path was long, although it seems to them that the years passed somehow imperceptibly. " Desolation reigns in the Fortress, the garrison was again reduced, and the General Staff no longer attaches any significance to this citadel lost in the mountains. The generals do not take seriously the road laid along the northern plain, and life in the fort becomes even more monotonous and secluded.
One September morning, Drogo, now the captain, rises along the road to the Fortress. He had a month-long vacation, but he survived only half the term, and now is returning: the city has become completely alien to him.
“Pages turn over, months and years go by,” but Drogo is still waiting for something, although his hopes are weakening every minute.
Finally, the enemy army does approach the walls of the Fortress, but Drogo is already old and sick, and he is sent home to make room for young combat-ready officers. On the way, Drogo overtakes death, and he understands that this is the main event of his life. He is dying looking in the night sky.
