Friedy is not an easy girl . She easily evades surveillance, is able to kill with her bare hands and endure inhuman torture, and also has a lot of other advantages. She is an agent of a powerful secret organization, whose sphere of activity is the whole Earth, as well as other planets. “If I go into the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear evil, because You are with me...” Psalm 22, the one traditionally read at a funeral The novel, whose title is taken from these lines, Robert Heinlein wrote as the last novel in his life, being hard, almost hopelessly ill. Those who knew him said that in the image of the indomitable old man Johann Smith, the author portrayed himself. Johann Smith is also old and hopelessly ill, but he is not just desperately clinging to life - he is preparing to give a decisive fight to death himself. And - wins! And since any victory is the daughter of chance, the results are completely unexpected...