Two great Russian writers, Mikhail Bulgakov and Yevgeny Zamyatin, suffocate in the years of Stalin in the Soviet Union. Their works are banned, they lose their jobs, and they suffer greatly. They write directly to the terrifying leader, following a Russian tradition of the 19th century when Pushkin, Gogol, and Dostoevsky sent letters to the tsar begging for vital favors. The two writer friends seek the coveted passport to leave for a period abroad and try to use Gorky as an intermediary. Zamyatin succeeds, Bulgakov does not, and tragically dies in 1940. Their works will be published in Russia after the 1980s.

In this book, their letters are published, a prophetic text by Zamyatin titled "I Am Afraid" from 1921, and an extensive introduction by the translator regarding the two writers and the persecution of writers in the years of the Soviet Union.