The diaries of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich (1858-1915), on which the book is based, are both a chronicle of the fatal fall of the Romanov Empire, and a passionate confession of the restless soul of the poet K.R., and a merciless analysis of his vicious feelings and seditious ideas, and a pain–filled story about the misfortunes of an older brother who, at the behest of a royal uncle, was first in a dungeon, and then in lifelong exile under the supervision of psychiatrists. Russia has not forgotten the brothers: romances to K.R.'s poems were sung everywhere, the plot of his play "The King of the Jews" was used by M. Bulgakov when writing "The Master and Margarita", and grateful countrymen turned the Hungry Steppe into a blooming oasis to "crazy" Nikolai Konstantinovich in 1918 (already under the Bolsheviks!) a lavish funeral was arranged…