Lev Ganin, a Russian émigré living in Berlin, finds his present reality disrupted when he learns that the husband of his first love, Mary, is a fellow boarder in his rooming house. Ganin occupies a space of transition, caught between the mundane, claustrophobic atmosphere of his exile and the vivid, idealized recollections of his youth in pre-revolutionary Russia. As he anticipates Mary's arrival, he navigates the tension between his romanticized memory and the stark, unappealing reality of her current husband. The narrative framework utilizes a blend of third-person perspective and deep, immersive interiority to contrast the stagnation of the émigré experience with the fluidity of memory.

Readers and critics frequently highlight this work as a foundational text for understanding the author's stylistic evolution and thematic preoccupations. Discussion often centers on the sharp contrast between the drab, claustrophobic setting of the Berlin boarding house and the luminous, idealized memories of the protagonist's youth. Many observers note that the novel functions as a meditation on the nature of nostalgia and the inevitable disappointment that accompanies the collision of memory with reality. The pacing is deliberate, prioritizing internal reflection and atmospheric detail over traditional plot progression. Readers often appreciate the subtle irony present in the character dynamics, which prevents the narrative from becoming purely sentimental.