A manuscript was discovered in an antique store in Vienna - the memoirs of an unknown person who lived in the Vologda province in 1916. Almost against his will, the author of the notes finds himself involved in a series of disturbing and mysterious events of the revolutionary period. What will be the heroine’s choice: blindness or vigilance, selflessness or mastery, help or destruction? However, the intricacies of the plot do not obscure other aspects of the novel, which reinterpret eternal and at the same time burning themes: the fragility of existence, the tragedy of history, guilt and responsibility, the dignity of the individual and the unpredictability of fate. Alexander Sobolev is a philologist, expert and researcher of Silver Age poetry. The author’s first novel, “Griffins Guard the Lyre” (2021), was enthusiastically received by critics and readers, and was included in the short list of the Andrei Bely Prize.