The book offers reflection on our place on Earth, self-knowledge, mortality, loyalty, love. About the aging of each of us, but also about the aging of modern European culture as a whole.

Chantal has already had one marriage and a tragic experience - the death of a child. Her younger partner Jean-Marc has given up his medical studies and his ambitions. He seeks the meaning of life in a relationship with his older and more experienced wife. In an attempt to dispel her fears of aging, he starts sending her anonymous letters with confessions, he wants to prove to her that she is still attractive. However, the innocent game goes awry and the pair face a loss of trust.

The novel was published in French in 1997, but it deals with absolutely timeless topics that people have been asking since time immemorial. How to build and maintain confidence when we are constantly exposed to pressure from the outside world? How to protect your "ivory tower"? Can the cracks be mended, or is the balance broken forever? "The questions that Kundera asks have certainly been asked by many. If you belong to Kunder's readers, this thin book will certainly not disappoint you," says translator Elena Flašková.