On a rainy afternoon in London's old Chelsea, a charming multi-billionaire Russian oligarch, Gorsky, walks into an ailing bookshop and writes the first of several quarter-of-a-million pound checks. With that money, Gorsky has tasked Nikola, the store's bored and brilliant clerk, with sourcing books for a massive personal library, which which will be housed in the magnificent, palatial home Gorsky happens to be building immediately next to Nikola's own modest dwelling. Gorsky needs a tasteful collection of Russian literature to woo a long-lost love--no matter that she happens to be married to an Englishman. His passion for her surpasses even his immeasurable wealth, and Nikola will be drawn into a world of opulence, greed, capitalism, sex, and beauty as he helps Gorsky pursue this doomed love.