Once they arrive, the two cosmonauts sent to "Parity" discover that their predecessors have disappeared completely. Before leaving, they left a note stating that they had made contact with intelligent life from the planet Lesnaya Grud'. Together, they decided to keep their findings private out of fear for the political turmoil that might occur. The inhabitants of Lesnaya Grud' had traveled to "Parity" and transported the two cosmonauts to their home planet. From there, the cosmonauts send a transmission back to "Parity" describing the planet. It has a much larger population than Earth, nobody has any concept of war, and there is an established and functional world government. Furthermore, Lesnaya Grud' suffers from the problem of "internal withering," where portions of the planet turn to uninhabitable desert. Although this problem will not be critical for many millions of years, the inhabitants of Lesnaya Grud' are already trying to decide what to do about it and how to possibly fix it.