Yuri Kolker's book of memoir prose recreates the beginning of his life in Israel: the joys and difficulties of a refugee who escaped from the USSR "in the year of Orwell," everyday and spiritual conflicts, friendship and love, the cultural situation in Russian Israel and the Russian West. The author's focus is on the position of the Russian poet in a non-Russian environment imbued with national idealism. The hero of the story chooses an unexpected, untested line of behavior before him. The book relies on archival materials, including the author's correspondence with Russian writers in Europe and America.