The book tells about the masterpieces of world literature, which have now retained their enormous aesthetic and moral potential (Iliad, Homer's Odyssey, works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Virgil, Horace, etc.). Young hero of Balzac's novel Shagreen Skin Rafael de Valantin - in an antique shop. In front of him is a pile of antiquities. Paintings, household items, weapons. Created by the hands of people who lived in different eras and in different countries, they concealed the spirit of their creators - their thoughts, the beating of their hearts, their joys and tragedies.