The play is set in 1866 when Dostoevsky is under enormous pressure to complete a novel. He employs a young stenographer, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, and describes the major events of his life to her in the intervals between dictation. These events are reenacted with Anna taking on the roles of the other two key women in the writer's life-- Maria Dimitrievna Isaev and the vivacious Polina. The friendship between writer and stenographer slowly deepens as they share his past experiences and they decide that they wish to share their futures together.
Published in Russian Masters.