The book is an image of Russia in the past (XVIII and XIX century) together with a polished act of merciless love for the land that has become, after so many years of practice with its greatest writers, the second spiritual home of the author. Left in the background, almost as secondary figures, the great protagonists of the story, Serena Vitale gives life to a varied crowd of seemingly marginal characters, where the "Russian soul" is revealed with the evidence of the nightmare or of the madness. The book is based on documents and rigorous historical researches, in order to demonstrate the mysterious and complex relationship between the truth of the facts and fiction novel.