In 1866, Fyodor Dostoyevsky found himself obliged to deliver a novel before November 1st to his publisher Stellovsky. The latter had imposed on the novelist a clause stipulating that if he was the slightest bit late, he would lose all rights to his entire work for nine years. The writer has twenty-six days to deliver a manuscript. This is the story told by Rolf Lambert and Hedwig Schmutte, with the help of experts. They portray Dostoyevsky and how “The Player” was one of the turning points in his literary and sentimental career. For it was on this occasion that he met Anna Snitkina, a stenographer who would become his wife.