Vera Shevardina believed that her life had failed. Her mother was an unrecognized actress; she was harassed; her husband left her, with a child in her arms; work didn’t come through. And only an attempt by Vera to understand her own family tree gives her hope that everything will change—on the genealogical chart, a branch of the famous Italian surname Orbinі is discovered. Vera learns that her great-grandmother knew Maxim Gorky, and the family secret is connected to the Italian period of the writer’s life. And Vera decides to go to Italy to meet the supposed relatives—unaware that the life of the famous proletarian writer in Italy interests far too many people, and that some of them will make it very hard for Vera Shevardina…