This book is the first volume of the memoirs of Hryhorii Kostiuk, a historian, publicist, and literary scholar. Kostiuk describes the momentous events that took place in Ukraine in the first half of the twentieth century. In the course of his narrative, Kostiuk records his interactions with some of the most important individuals in Ukrainian literature, science, politics, and community life.

During his student years in Kyiv (1925–29) Kostiuk studied with such famous scholars as M. Zerov, P. Fylypovich, B. Yakubsky, S. Maslov, and M. Kalynovych. In his post-graduate years in Kharkiv (1930–33), Kostiuk's instructors included V. S. Boyko, A. Shamrai, and O. Biletsky. In Kharkiv, Kostiuk was involved in the work of the literary organization Prolitfront, where he cooperated with M. Khvyliovy, M. Kulish, P. Tychyna, H. Epik, D. Feldman O. Vyshnia, and other leading literary figures of the 1920s. Among his friends, Kostiuk counted H. Kosynka, Yu. Yanovsky, V. Mysyk, B. Teneta, V. Sosiura, L. Pervomaiisky, I. Bahryany, T. Masenko, O. Korniichuk, and many others.

During Stalin's reign of terror, Kostiuk was arrested and sentenced without trial to five years in the concentration camps of Vorkuta. There he met with many veterans of the revolutionary period and survived the mass terror of 1937–8. The volume concludes with the outbreak of the Second World War.