Content Warning: The source material and this guide discuss graphic violence, torture and death, and violent sexual assault. The source material also uses slurs and antisemitic language and refers to lethal drug use and suicide.

Anne’s mother, Lélia, tells the story of the Rabinovitch family as they look over the family archives, including a mysterious postcard. It begins with a forbidden love between distant cousins Aniouta (Anna) Gavronsky and Ephraïm Rabinovitch in 1918 Moscow. Ephraïm was forced to wed Emma Wolf, whom he’d met as part of their kest-eltern—adopted family. He promises to forget Anna, which Lélia says he does not do.

Ephraïm breaks away from the family’s religion and becomes a socialist. He educates himself, despite limitations on the number of Jewish people allowed in university, and shuns his Jewish heritage. He sees himself as part of the progressive Russians taking over the country for modernity, and he sees his father, Nachman, as old-fashioned and uneducated.

The story continues with Emma pregnant with Myriam, Lélia’s mother. Emma and Ephraïm share the pregnancy news at Pesach (Passover), a Jewish holiday that inspires Ephraïm toward revolution. Passover is meant as a reminder “to be wary of ease and comfort,” which are signs of slavery (14).