"It is 1773, and philosopher Denis Diderot - art critic, theater critic, impresario of L'Encyclopedie - is summoned to St. Petersburg, where he hopes to enlighten the despotic Catherine the Great on reason and liberty. Though the crafty empress lures him to her Winter Palace, the Hermitage, she seems more interested in buying his impressive personal library than adopting the liberal reforms he suggests.".

"In 1993 a group journeys to St. Petersburg to uncover Diderot's past. Each of the members of the group known only as the Diderot Project - a diva, a carpenter, a playwright, a novelist, a philosopher, a diplomat and a trade unionist - represents one of the philosopher's wide-ranging interests. Enjoying themselves on the free ride across the Baltic, the Project members arrive in St. Petersburg looking for quick ways to justify their grant-funded junket.

As the country around them falls into chaos during a revolt against Yeltsin's new Russian democracy, one member - the novelist - seeks to recapture Diderot's lost age and discover something about his own."--BOOK JACKET.