The hero of the novel, in his declining years, recalls his childhood and youth, relatives and friends, and conducts imaginary conversations with his long-departed wife. These memories stubbornly refuse to form a coherent picture, the mosaic crumbles, the thread breaks every now and then, the hero submits to the whims of his memory, but from individual episodes, dialogues, reflections, letters and diary entries - real and fictitious - a family life story is born against his will for decades. The free, original form of the novel, subtle irony and undoubted sincerity of the narrative, in which it is difficult to separate the author from the hero, will not leave indifferent the connoisseur of good prose.