Hankiss' novel begins when another century as turbulent as our own is drawing to a close. It is the 1590s, and Hungarians, weary of the past and fearful of the future, are regretting their loss of independence to decayed and corrupted foreign powers.
The beautiful Susanna Forgach is contracted into a disastrous marriage that leads to personal tragedy and a complicated public trial. At the same time the politically manipulated trial of Istan Illéshazy an event with many parallels in recent Hungarian history) has important consequences in defining the limits of nationhood.
Drawing on the old széphistoria, or romance, tradition, Hankiss challenges its well-ordered assumptions about men and women, about nature, language and history itself with her baroque and brilliant fantasy.