The gas chamber special unit lives in relative comfort. Private Roze observes gassings and monitors dentists extracting gold teeth. He has grown numb to the killing. He accepts daily packets of gold crowns from a dentist, enriching himself by accepting bribes.

Prisoner Anton Khmelkov is disturbed by colleague Trofima Zhuchenko, who operates the gas chamber doors with pleasure. Khmelkov justifies his compromises by remembering how he suffered as a prisoner of war. This experience left him with one desire: to survive. The difference between his guilt and Zhuchenko’s depravity is becoming insignificant.

Sturmbannführer Kaltluft, the meticulous director of the extermination complex, efficiently manages the daily arrivals. He shows emotion only when looking at his daughter’s photograph. He believes that judgment will come from a fellow sinner who felt totalitarianism’s power, yet still holds others accountable.

A train arrives. Dazed people emerge, organized by prisoner-workers in blue overalls. A rumor spreads that they are going to a bathhouse. An elderly woman asks a worker in Yiddish if he is Jewish; he confirms so, then shouts at the column to hurry.

The prisoners march toward the camp as crematoria stain the sky red. A prisoner orchestra plays. An SS officer selects about 30 for work; none answer his call for doctors. The chosen enter the camp while the rest are led toward the gas chambers.

Sofya Levinton holds David’s hand in the condemned column. They walk with a machinist family with a baby and a librarian named Musya Borisovna. Sofya is overcome with maternal tenderness. When they called for doctors, she remained silent. A man attacks a guard; Sofya lunges to help. Nearing the buildings, David throws away a matchbox containing a chrysalis, hoping it will live.

In a changing room, men and women undress on opposite sides. Sofya embraces her maternal feelings. Their hair is cut; one prisoner secretly takes Rebekka’s rings. A doctor calls to his mother across the partition. German guards herd them into a concrete corridor. Sofya recalls a pre-war conversation with Yevgenia about fated meetings of killer and victim. A guard strikes Sofya with a club. She stumbles with David into the chamber.

David is briefly separated, but Sofya holds him tight. The door seals, a fan turns, and a sweet smell pervades. David glimpses Roze’s eyes through an observation window. Clasped in Sofya’s arms, David dies. Sofya’s last thought is that she has “become a mother” (554). She dies.

In a philosophical interlude, the narration posits that life is freedom and death is gradual surrender to “slavery.” When a person dies, the unique universe within their consciousness is extinguished forever.

Army driver Semyonov, captured, is put on a train west. On day 11, he is dragged from the wagon at Khutor Mikhailovsky and left for dead. Old Khristya Chunyak takes him in, gives him milk, and nurses him. A neighbor discusses German occupation and the hated kolkhoz. Khristya reveals her family was decimated by Stalin’s collectivization famine. Semyonov, a Muscovite, is shocked. Khristya recalls how young men with Moscow accents like his came to confiscate grain while her husband starved.

In Moscow, Viktor is nominated for a Stalin Prize. Markov warns that Shishakov seems hostile. Viktor phones Shishakov at home requesting favors for colleagues—Landesman’s nomination, Weisspapier’s return, and Loshakova’s reinstatement—but Shishakov’s wife curtly tells him to call the office. Viktor and Lyudmila argue.

Viktor learns Shishakov hosted a party for high officials the night he called. Sokolov warns that powerful figures, including Badin, criticize his work as anti-Leninist. Savostyanov reveals that Gavronov, a rival, believes Viktor’s work “stinks of Judaism” (571). Sokolov withheld this. Viktor’s personnel requests are denied, and Anna Stepanovna Loshakova is dismissed. Viktor confronts Kovchenko, who stonewalls him. Viktor feels reduced from celebrated scientist to vulnerable Jew.

Viktor fills out an intrusive state questionnaire. He boldly writes “Jew” for nationality. He reflects on the sinister parallel between Soviet focus on “social origin” and Nazi race fixation.

Viktor confronts Shishakov, accusing him of antisemitism. Shishakov retorts that Viktor’s work is too theoretical and ideologically suspect. Viktor threatens to resign but loses his nerve. At home, he learns that Nadya is secretly seeing a soldier. Viktor confronts her. At night, he fears he has ruined his life.

Lyudmila receives a letter from her mother, full of family tragedy but no mention of Tolya. Zhenya is in trouble; Stepan Fyodorovich is a widower; Vera is unhoused. Lyudmila reflects on her souring relationship with Viktor. She worries about Nadya’s romance with soldier Lomov.

At the Institute, Viktor is shunned. Markov reveals that Viktor was condemned at a Party meeting. Marya Ivanovna intercepts him, confirming that Badin labelled his behavior as “political hysteria.” Her husband is afraid, and they have lost contact with Madyarov. Viktor feels rare peace in her company. She reassures him he could not have acted otherwise.

Darensky is stationed in the Kalmyk steppe. His days are dominated by delousing and the struggle for comfort.

Under a huge red moon, Darensky listens to two soldiers. They compare the landscape to an old battlefield painting, one noting that they are more like sparrows than epic warriors.

Massive artillery barrage strikes. Darensky feels doomed. The barrage was the opening of the decisive Soviet counter-offensive: Vatutin, Rokossovsky, and Yeremenko launched the operation that, within 100 hours, will decide the fate of Paulus’s 330,000-strong army. Darensky is ordered to join Novikov’s tank corps as an observer.

After an air-raid destroys the Stalingrad power station, Spiridonov develops uncontrollable hand tremors. He and his chief engineer send the remaining workers across the Volga. He worries for the pregnant Vera, who is stranded across the river. Hours before the counter-offensive, Spiridonov leaves without Moscow’s authorization. His departure will lead many to brand him a coward.

Vera gives birth to a son in the squalid hold of the barge. Two days later, the haggard Spiridonov arrives and weeps at the news. He says Krymov visited and repeatedly asked about Zhenya. Spiridonov decides to stay with Vera until she is stronger, then travel to Kuibyshev for a new assignment.

Vera feels hopeless. Suddenly, a man reads a bulletin: The Soviet offensive has encircled German forces near Stalingrad and Kalach has been retaken. Evacuees weep with relief. Vera is filled with hope that her husband might appear.

At 8th Air Army HQ, the duty officer reports losses. Senior Lieutenant Viktorov’s plane was set on fire, and he came down on a hill in no-man’s-land. A rescue attempt was prevented by German attacks. The general barely acknowledges this. Viktorov’s body lies on a snow-covered hill.