Vasily Kolotusha, a "young" man by diplomatic standards, was designated as the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the USSR to Lebanon shortly after an unprecedented tragedy: four employees of the Soviet embassy in Beirut had been kidnapped by a radical organization, and one of them ended up murdered.

It was up to the new Ambassador to solve a lot of important issues at once: to ensure the safety of his staff, to double up on the reconciliation efforts for the Lebanese, to strengthen the Soviet Union's political presence of the country's life... And this is precisely at the time when the ordinary Lebanese, not to mention the media, would blame the current situation on such major political players as the USSR and the USA.

- How did the new ambassador's "youth" and alleged inexperience played into his hands?

- Why can internal conflicts bring the diplomatic mission more harm than the external intrigues?

- How to react when political cartoonists mock you in print?

- Why do ambassadors really go to receptions and theaters?

- How to keep the presence of mind and a sense of humor under shellfire and amidst curfews?

About these and many other complex and terrible things, Vasily Kolotusha writes with great courage, charm and modesty, in a very simple yet captivating manner.