The play takes us back to the middle of the twentieth century. Hitler comes to power, and the Second World War is brewing. A young Jewish man from Ukraine, hiding from the Stalinist repressions, finds refuge with a church minister in the outback of Russia. He puts on a cassock and works in the church. There, he falls in love with a country girl, but the outbreak of fighting separates them, and he goes to war. Unable to bear the separation, the girl goes to look for him.

Variations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 can be read as stand-alone stories, but for a full understanding of the novel philosophy, the connecting thread that runs through the entire novel, the interweaving of characters and their situations, it's better to read the Variations in numbered sequence.