The novel takes place at the beginning of the XVIII century in Europe: in Paris, where Count von Goim serves as the ambassador of the Electorate of Saxony and the Kingdom of Poland, and in Meissen, where Tobias Sezen, an apprentice, begins his working career at a porcelain factory. The life lines of the count and the pupil touch when Augustus the Strong recalls his ambassador and appoints him to the post of minister and director of the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory. Intrigues at the French and Saxon courts, squabbles at the factory, the count's love affair with the British ambassador and the first passion of Tobias's pupil for a retired cavalryman unfold against the background of the story of the invention and the first two decades of the existence of European porcelain.
Writer and collector Anatoly Vishevsky was born in Chernivtsi, emigrated from the USSR in 1979, defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Kansas in 1985, studied Russian literature of the 19th century, taught at Grinnell College (Iowa), lives in Prague. In 2018, Meridian Czernowitz published Vishevsky's first novel, The Fragile Fantasies of Oberbossier Loys.
For the cover and illustrations, a painting by an unknown author of the 18th century and objects from the collection of Anatoly Vishevsky were used.