"Yawning Heights" show the city of Ibansk, "no one populated area", where the successful construction of "socism" is going on; all inhabitants wear the last name Ibanov. The city is dominated by absurdity, hypocrisy, cruelty, imperious arbitrariness, a sense of a dead end and hopelessness. In the endless Socratic dialogues, the heroes monotonously mock Soviet society and compose various sociological theories that lead nowhere. Most of the characters represent the intelligentsia of "liberal" views, they are not dissidents, but not capable of resisting conformists. Many pages expose Soviet official rhetoric, but hardly any authority or repressive organs are described. According to one of the points of view, "Yawning Heights" show science and scientific activity, which has turned into imitation, appearance, hypocrisy and tautology. Science is no longer capable of learning, but only describes itself. Scientists pretend to think, but do not produce anything, people depict the process of work, dissidents imitate resistance. The intelligentsia serves the regime or depicts a protest ("theater at Ibank").