And so the geographical borders of the novel prove to be infinite. Britain with its "eternal and perpetual interests", is portrayed; France, torn apart by internal cataclysms and under pressure from Prussia’s growing might; Austria, having more Hungarians, Czechs, Croats, Poles, Italians, Slovaks... than Germans within its borders; Russia with its succession of emperors and its irremovable top diplomat Gorchakov; Prussia, with Chancellor Bismarck at its head, emerging right then as the German Empire. This is the age of empires. We see Ottoman Turkey, Japan, Egypt, and even the United States with its confidence as a new democracy.
All this is depicted trough several hundred characters, events and actions of specific great or unimportant people, using their actual names and personal destinies. It is depicted trough alliances and confrontations that open a panoramic window on the world of those times, the way it was.
The historical plot is also intertwined with a present-day story-line. In it a young American comes to Bulgaria and his path in a strange way intersects with the history of an old gold medallion. What will he find for himself in this faraway land?
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