The novel is set in a mysterious world where enigmatic Mentors run a sociological experiment. The mentors gathered volunteers from Earth from various places and times: from Germany of the 1940s, the USA of the 1960s, Sweden of the 1970s, etc. The volunteers do not know the goals or conditions of the experiment. In spite of different native languages the people can effortlessly communicate with each other. Most of the people live in the City that is skirted by a swamp on one side and a desert on the other. Apparently, the experiment runs out of control, the City is shaken by a social unrest and an egalitarian system of job rotations is replaced by a dictatorship.

The main character — Andrei Voronin — is an astronomer from Leningrad of the 1950s. He struggles to find his identity and his place in the strange city, at first being a vehement opponent of the dictatorship, and later becoming a leading adviser of the dictator. Naively idealistic at the beginning of the novel, he seems to have become crass in the second half.

However, eventually, he leads an expedition to explore the desert. The expedition proves difficult in the extreme. The members are exhausted, they turn back or perish. Eventually, only Andrei and his skeptical friend Izia Katzman forge ahead. They encounter deserted cities and ruins of Earth cultures that show that the mysterious world is very old and humans have inhabited it for a long time.

As Andrei and Izia proceed, they ponder the strange world and the meaning of human existence. They run out of supplies, but they keep going on eager to learn what is beyond the "zero point". Andrei apparently dies on the border shooting at his double. He then finds himself back in the Leningrad of the 1950s, where his Mentor tells him that he passed the first circle, but "there are many of them ahead".

A cargo spaceship, propelled by a photon engine with a large reflective mirror ("sail"), visits the Jupiter system to deliver cargo to a staffed science station on Amalthea. Damaged by meteorites, the spaceship falls into Jupiter but survives the pressure and floats in the dense atmosphere. The crew manage to work around the damaged mirror and start the main engine to escape Jupiter and finally reach Amalthea.

The story follows Alexander Privalov, a young computer programmer who, while driving home from a vacation in Karelia, gives a ride to two hitchhikers and ends up staying at the National Institute for the Technology of Witchcraft and Thaumaturgy (NIITChAVO) in the fictional town of Solovets. There he discovers a research institute where sorcerers, folkloric creatures, and Soviet bureaucracy coexist, and scientists approach magic with the same rigor and administrative red tape as any other branch of science.

The novel combines folklore, absurdist humor, and a parody of Soviet scientific institutions and academic life.

A spaceship, propelled by a prototype photon engine, sets off for Venus, which is then an enigmatic and unexplored planet that is covered by clouds. The tasks of the crew are to test the prototype engine in field conditions and to locate and set radio beacons on the so called "Uranium Golconda" (a place with incredibly large heavy metals deposits) that is presumably found somewhere on the second planet of the Solar System.

As the crew ventures into the depths of Venus, unknown dangers take them out one by one and so only four of six return home after they accomplished the mission, and all are badly damaged both physically and mentally. However, their feat was the first milestone in colonizing Venus and the first step into the 21st century.

Roadside Picnic is set in the aftermath of an extraterrestrial event, the Visitation, which occurred simultaneously in several locations around the Earth over a two-day period. Neither the Visitors themselves nor their means of arrival or departure were ever seen by the local populations, who lived inside the relatively small areas, each a few square kilometers, of the six Visitation Zones. The Zones exhibit strange and dangerous phenomena that are not understood by humans and contain artifacts with inexplicable properties.

A spaceship, propelled by a prototype photon engine, sets off for Venus, which at that time, is an enigmatic and unexplored planet covered by clouds. The tasks of the crew are a) to test the prototype engine in field conditions and b) to locate and set radio beacons on the s.c. "Uranium Golconda" (a place with incredibly large heavy metals deposits), presumably, found somewhere on the second planet of the Solar System.
As the crew ventures into the depths of Venus, unknown dangers take them out one by one, so only a half of them returns home after accomplishing the mission—all badly damaged, both physically and mentally. However, their feat was the first milestone in colonizing Venus and the first step into the 22nd century.

Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those strange misfits who are compelled by some unknown force to venture illegally into the Zone and, in spite of the extreme danger, collect the mysterious artefacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the Zone and the thriving black market in the alien products. Even the nature of his daughter has been determined by the Zone. And it is for her that Red makes his last, tragic foray into the hazardous and hostile depths.
http://www.amazon.com/Roadside-Picnic-Troika-Arkady-Strugatsky/dp/0671819763/

Red Schuhart is a stalker, a young rebel who is compelled, despite extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect mysterious alien artifacts. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together, something goes terribly wrong. The news Red receives from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he'll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems. Back in print after 30 years, this brand new translation of a science-fiction classic has been supplemented with a foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin and a new afterword by Boris Strugatsky that explains the strange history of its original publication in Russia.