Roman describes in detail the course of the uprising of the Ukrainian Cossacks led by Bogdan Khmelnitsky against the Commonwealth. The battle of Yellow Waters is described, the battles of Korsun and Pilyavtsy are mentioned, ending with the victories of the rebels. Much attention in the book is paid to the struggle among the Poles, which was waged by the "peaceful party," which advocated the pacification of the rebellion, it is represented on the pages of the book by Senator Adam Kisel; and the "war party," which was for suppressing the rebellion, whose ideological leader was Prince Jeremiah Vishnevetsky. The image of the latter, one of the key characters in the novel, is idealized in the book.