Charles Phillips, a completely ordinary person, our contemporary from 1984, finds himself in the distant future, in the 50th century. Life here turns out to be pleasant, non-committal, but a little strange. There are only five cities in the world, and all of them are complete copies of famous historical cities of the past, and the cities are constantly changing: periodically one is destroyed, and then another, new one is built. The entire population of cities is made up of “temporary” biorobots, indistinguishable from people, performing decorative and service functions. But there are only a few hundred real citizens, they are immortal, and spend their whole lives on pleasure trips from one city to another. Charles Phillips becomes one of them, and even finds his love here. But he is constantly tormented by a number of questions. How did he get here? Why is he here? Why is this world so strange? He doesn't know the answers. But we are slowly getting closer to the solution...