Finished in 1992 and set in post-Gorbachev Moscow, this is the first novel to explore the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of Russia after perestroika. A Ring in a Case details the religious and moral regeneration of Helium Revolverovich Serious, a specialist in scientific atheism who begins to doubt his lack of belief in God when he becomes plagued by demons. His subsequent meditations reflect the essential philosophical questions posed throughout Russian literature and illuminate the collapse of contemporary Russian society. A Ring in a Case offers an invaluable assessment from the vantage point of the system's collapse.