The truck driver Valerka and his partner were instructed to drive a fifty-ton transformer from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The men famously got down to business, but did not reach Moscow, halfway through the transformer fell off the truck. So the poor fellows got stuck by the road, waiting for the authorities, guarding valuable cargo from scrap metal hunters. For many months, Kostomarov and Kattin periodically visited Valerka, recording his stories about how he spends time guarding the transformer.