This book is about Russian writers of the 19th century and their wives and girlfriends. In particular the short stories and novels talk about Alexander Pushkin and his wife Natalie; Ivan Turgenev and the women he loved (Pauline Viardot Varvara Bogdanovich Maria Markovich); Alexander Herzen and his wife Natalie Vissarion Belinsky his wife and Sasha Bakunina; Nekrasov and Avdotya Panaeva. In many stories it is the woman who becomes the main character. The author shows a female point of view on events that were previously described by male writers.