What do they have in common? At first glance, nothing. For some reason, a medieval princess is taken somewhere, she finds herself in a completely different world, in Renaissance Italy, and there she meets... In the middle of the 18th century, a clever widow skillfully and tastefully runs the affairs of a publishing house in a French provincial town. Everything goes according to a well-thought-out plan for her and suddenly... A Pole philologist, born in London at the end of the 19th century, looks out of the windows of his Roman apartment at the Aventine Hill and dreams about something. Then, at the risk of his life, he descends the stairs, goes out into the street, and then... Three characters, three stories, three eras, different countries; three styles of life, thoughts, feelings; three modes of storytelling characteristic of these countries and those times. So what do they have in common? Only one thing. In the confusion of circumstances and events, all three are looking for love and immortality. Olga Medvedkova is a novelist, historian of art and architecture, senior researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research.