The boy Vasyutka, the son of a fisherman, goes into the taiga and accidentally gets lost. Left alone, he faces the harsh nature: hunger, cold, and fear. Using the knowledge he received from adults, Vasyutka finds food, navigates in the forest, and tries to reach people.
During his wandering, he finds an unknown lake, rich in fish, which later helps the adults.
In the end, Vasyutka makes it out of the taiga, showing endurance, resourcefulness, and courage.
Viktor Petrovich Astafyev (1924-2002) was able to devote himself to literature too late: hard labor and war took away his best years. Only at the age of twenty-seven did the writer manage to publish his first story. However, this did not prevent him from becoming a classic during his lifetime. The collected works of Astafyev consist of fifteen volumes. Each work is a contemplation of the human place in the world, about his responsibility for his actions towards other people and nature.