The novel by the English author is set in Moscow and depicts several weeks of the year 1913. Nelli, the wife of English printing press owner Frank Reid and mother of three children, unexpectedly leaves her family and returns to her homeland, England. Frank, inundated with well-meaning advice from all sides, tries to cope with the changed situation. Alongside the dissolution of family ties, changes in the political and social landscape are emerging; the first signs of the revolution are becoming apparent.