Anatoly Sukhanov’s talent showed itself early. His paintings, unusual and vivid, captivated Nina Malinina, the daughter of a high-ranking “general of art.” But Anatoly made his life choice not in favor of art, but for prestige and comfort, and turned from a creator into a critic, editor of a leading Soviet art criticism journal. In 1985, the life of the 56-year-old Sukhanov suddenly changes: amid a series of unexpected incidents, dreams, and hallucinations, the truth about his father’s life and death is revealed to him, along with the young Nina caught between painting and love… This is a novel about a whole layer of culture, about the interaction between art and politics, and about the eternal questions of love and truth.