The book begins in December 1934, when Ginsburg, a teacher and journalist in
Kazan, hears news of the murder of
Sergei Kirov. At a Party meeting several days later, she is questioned about her association with Professor Elvov of the Teachers Training Institute. In 1935 Elvov is arrested, on the grounds that his writings contain
Trotskyist influences; Ginzburg is accused of failing to show loyalty to the Party by "failing to condemn" his actions. Eventually, Ginzburg is stripped of her Party membership, and imprisoned. The bulk of the book describes her eighteen years of imprisonment. ==References==