The novel takes place in the 1950s in Russia, slightly different from the historical one. The main character, Nicodim, learns from a random slip of the tongue from his mother that his father was a famous novelist who disappeared some time ago under strange circumstances. Nicodim, obeying a vague feeling, sets out to find him. A series of remarkable incidents and extraordinary people who met along the way, makes up the external plot of the book. Written by a philologist and assuming a certain reader's qualification, the novel may be of interest to a wide range of fans of Russian literature.