Scribo ergo sum - I write, therefore I am. Can writing mean so much? Yes, according to Dylan. As a boy he was infected by a story about Tolstoy which influenced him to become a writer. Years later he takes on a low-paying job as a curator of a monument house, where he spends most of his time writing. One day Mignon arrives, and things change. Two interwoven stories unfold – one bound up with the Cold War, the other with Tolstoy. Dylan and Mignon are led from South Africa to Astapovo in Russia, where a Tolstoyan revelation awaits them.