 Some local landmarks are mentioned in the novel, such as the trolleyline and Chorsu Bazaar.The zoo Kostoglotov visits is now a soccer field near Mirabad Amusement Park.Kostoglotov begins two romances in the hospital, one with Zoya, a nurse and medical student, though the attraction is mostly physical, and a more serious one with Vera Gangart, one of his doctors, a middle-aged woman who has never married, and whom he imagines he might ask to become his wife.