Martin and Tomas leave Prague on Christmas Day for "that other country." Although their destination is the mountains, their departure has been initiated by a search for their own identity--people in their country have become alike, losing their individuality and becoming products of a totalitarian regime. The pair become the guests of a high school teacher, but Martin falls in love with the teacher's daughter only to lose her in a police suppression, and the Other Country is revealed as a merciless machine of oppression that throws its people into despair.

Martin Vopenka was born in 1963 and studied nuclear and physical engineering at Prague's Charles University.  His first noovel, Kameny z hor (Rocks from the Mountains), was published in 1989.