The People's Republic of New Arkaim

Fifty-four-year-old army veteran and heart attack survivor Cal Paladin believes his life cannot get any worse, especially ever since his wife left him to join a desert-dwelling cult. Enter the United States Army. Cal, despite his poor health, gets called back to active duty service, along with his old army cohorts, to take part in a secret expedition to a parallel world.

Once there, the unit gets captured by the resident intelligent species who intend to sacrifice them all to a local deity. On the day of the sacrifice Cal and his remaining cohorts are rescued by a Russian commando unit and transported to the walled city of New Arkaim, a Soviet colony established back in the 1950s, the inhabitants of which possess no knowledge of the USSR's collapse decades ago.

Before long, Cal falls in love with Sofia Dashkova, a cultural hero of the colonial city. Alexei Podrovsky, head of New Arkaim's secret police, thinks Sofia has outlived her usefulness. He wants her dead. Cal devises a way to save Sofia and himself, but Sofia is about to unleash a scheme of her own, one that will change the lives of everyone in New Arkaim.