The novel, a roman à clef, is split into two alternating narratives: John Simon (i.e. Shallman) and his family discovering a manuscript written by his maternal grandfather Joseph Rakow in present-day California, interspersed with chapters describing Rakow's experiences of experiences of being exiled to Siberia during the final years of the Russian Empire, and his subsequent immigration to the United States. The novel juxtaposes the current day experiences of Simon as a political advisor in the United States with parallels seen in Russian politics 100 years earlier.
