About the book: 1966 / Somewhere in the distant desert of Central Asia, in places so far marked on maps only as a yellow spot, geologists live. They are looking for the seventy-ninth element - gold. Their life, full of difficulties, full of genuine romance, seems to be the most ordinary and at the same time completely unusual... This story by Valentin Erashov, the author of many collections of lyrical stories and novellas, was written based on direct impressions from a trip to the desert, where they live and Geologists are working. The writer moves away from the traditional image of geologists as “knights of a backpack and a hammer”, talks about the life of a modern geological expedition, and draws characters in life’s conflicts. In the foreground of the story are the moral and ethical problems that concern our youth, to whom this book is primarily addressed..