The war takes you by surprise. Makes you run, break your usual life, ask the questions “Who am I?” and “Where is my homeland?” The heroes of the novel by Nikolai V. Kononov cannot answer them unequivocally - these are displaced persons, stateless people, emigrants, double agents who acted between the First and Second World Wars. The stories of an anarchist who led Hitler's intelligence service by the nose, a young teacher searching for God and herself during the occupation, and a scientist burdened with evil who fled abroad from the Bolsheviks are told by their descendants, who today find themselves in a similar situation. Kononov provides an opportunity to look at the madness of the last century through the eyes of those who, against all odds, tried to survive, preserve humanity and defend their ideas.