Based in an imaginary Baltics and focusing on the opposing figures of a dictator and an intellectual, Krleza"s satire explores the existential struggle in the context of human social and political behavior. The novel has in itself all the political, cultural, and other commentary Krleza could not express otherwise for fear of persecution, so reads as Krleza"s own running exposition on an era seen as irretrievably corrupt and sliding into fascism.