It unfolds in a sweltering apartment in lower Manhattan, where a group of Russian immigrants attends a deathbed vigil for Alik, the charismatic artist who was a friend to all, the lover of many, and very probably the father of one. They alternately nurse and ignore him, reminisce and squabble over the past, and worry about their homeland as they watch news reports of the coup against Gorbachev and Yeltsin's dramatic counter-charge.

Ulitskaya brings all of the assembled vividly to life, among them Fima, the doctor who can't get American certification; Irina, a former circus acrobat and Alik's long-time lover; and Nina, Alik's vodka-sodden wife, desperate to have him baptized into the Orthodox church before he dies. Here is the emigre experience in microcosm -- and a wistful, boisterous, deeply moving portrait of the Russian soul.