Four boys – a Ukrainian, a Pole, a German and a Jew. These are friends in heart and soul who grow up in the vibrant, multinational city of Lviv before World War II, deal with the events of the war and its three occupiers, and fight shoulder to shoulder for the independence of their city. Their lives are described with a combination of humor, compassion, and a wonderful eye for detail. In a parallel plot set in the present, a researcher of ancient culture comes across a "Book of the Dead" written in cuneiform and with mysterious verses. The researcher slowly unravels a mystery involving the history of the city and his own family, and the Yanovska concentration camp established by the Nazis on its outskirts, where the "Tango of Death" was composed and forcibly played by Jewish musicians. In two intertwined voices, Yuri Vinnytsuk, one of the most important Ukrainian writers of his generation, weaves a literary work that is both tragic and comforting.