Following the most catastrophic war humanity had ever endured, the small island of Shikotan was incorporated into Sakhalin Oblast as part of a sweeping territorial rearrangement. In this distant, scarred frontier, bonds between children of two nations grew shyly, daring to break language walls and historic tides, striving toward a fragile peace. Based on real incidents.
On August 15, they informed us that we had lost the conflict. We scarcely grasped it then. Suddenly, everything shifted. Troops in unfamiliar uniforms arrived on the island; the island's quiet streets echoed with hopes, yet the shadows of war lingered. That day I first met Tanya.