The novel explores what is rooted in the heart that in modern society few people are eager, or even willing, to look at, such as the freedom to love, to live, to choose, to cherish, to heal, to reach beyond marriage to enrich it; courageously seeking greater happiness, liberty, peace and joy in the world.
The scene is Moscow in winter, somewhat isolated from imperial fascism, financial looting, political insanity, military atrocities, and so forth, that in the West are items that are so far outside the realm of daily living that they appear completely irrelevant, as if they didn't exist. We like to see a world that is 'flat,' that is safe and simple, rather than how it really is by the way we shape it. The story explores this paradox in numerous interlocked ways
The second aspect that is generally hard to acknowledge, which in contrast is totally real, manifests the greatest principles of our humanity, like the Principle of Universal Love that is a reality that we simply can't get away from. We find ourselves reminded again and again that the world really isn't flat, as it often seems, but is a sphere after all, even politically, militarily, in sex, ideologically, in love, and not least, in romance. Why then shouldn't we wake up and respond to the truth, which is easier in fiction? In response to this question people ask, can't we go on living in the small world of our dreams as devoted members of the 'Flat Earth Society?' But then, why should we remain living in a rut?