Nikolaï was abandoned at birth and has been in foster care ever since. Although a family would like to give the sixteen-year-old boy a home, he decides to make one himself. He meets Camille, an intriguing fifteen-year-old wiseacre, and tries to convince her to make a child together. Nikolaï is convinced that he can handle any problem and wants to avoid at all costs that an adult thwarts his plans. Camille and Nikolaï flee together from the home and isolate themselves in the woods. In the heart of this gloomy, mysterious forest, Nikolaï will have to face his first feelings and learn to become a man. Soon, he feels that there are many things he cannot control.

In her public persona, Eleanor “Tussy” Marx was a translator, actress, a children’s rights activist and a persuasive labour organizer, a tireless powerhouse determined to carry on her father’s work. She held her own with twentieth century gods, including both her father and his colleague Engels. In her privately life, however, she was vulnerable and her attraction to the self-indulgent and self-important Edward Aveling led her into misery and ultimately proved fatal.