This is a classic tale set in the real world of the 1990s. Pavel and Dominika get to know one another at the end of the Eighties, but the passion of their early love is followed by the gradual disintegration of their relationship. Both have the feeling that the political and social changes of 1989 have created the space in which they can realize their dreams; whereas Pavel is bitten by the business bug, believing this to be the area in which he will find himself, Dominika leaves for France to seek out her relatives and uncover her roots. The novel’s plot is packed with dramatic events in which often we encounter the political realities of the Nineties (including restitution, racketeering, bankruptcy, imprisonment, the opportunity to travel). Hájíček’s novel is vivid in its depictions in that the author never allows himself to be drawn away from the authenticity of his setting, nor does he allow his gaze to be deflected from observation of the developments and changes his heroes undergo, right up to the event which pitches them (as if) back to the start of their relationship. The novel as a whole poses – albeit in various mutations – a single question: Is it possible to go back and start anew?