To keep herself occupied after recently losing her sight, Zinaida begins a diary in the summer of 1888. When a family rents a guesthouse on her family's estate, Zinaida meets and befriends Anton, the middle son, who is a doctor and a writer. As the summer progresses, Zinaida's diary becomes an intimate, introspective narrative of her singular relationship with Anton. More than a century later, Katya Kendall discovers Zinaida's diary, and in a last attempt to save her publishing business, she hires Ana to translate the diary. They soon realize that Zinaida's Anton is actually Anton Chekhov, the author and playwright, and that the diary points to the possibility that Chekhov used that summer to write a novel. As Katya and Ana delve deeper, they reflect on the events and forces which have steered them to where they are, and they discover that the manuscript is not the only mystery the diary holds. --,adapted from publisher website and Kirkus reviews.