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French explorer Sylvain Tison once promised to live a secluded life deep in the forest before he was forty years old. So he lived for six months in a Siberian cabin on the northern Cape of Cedar on the shores of Lake Baikal. The nearest village is a hundred and twenty kilometers away, with no neighbors and the occasional strange visitor. In winter, the temperature drops to minus 30 degrees Celsius; in summer, bears appear on the steep slopes of the lake shore. He brought books, cigars and vodka, and created a simple and beautiful life in this wilderness. Time was reduced to a few simple actions: facing the lake and forest, watching the days go by; chopping wood, fishing, cooking; reading a lot; walking in the mountains; drinking vodka in front of the window.

In 2012, Sylvain Thizon and his literary travel companions were once again tired of urban life and longed for a trip. This year marks the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's defeat in the Russo-French War and the disastrous Battle of the Berezina River. Taison and his friends came up with the idea of ​​riding a motorcycle back to Paris from Moscow: retracing the retreat of Napoleon's army. So, in a snowy December, five friends (three French and two Russians) bought three second-hand Ural three-wheel heavy motorcycles produced in the Soviet Union and hit the road with books related to the Russo-French War.

All contemporary events find echoes in Homer's epics; rather, every upheaval in history confirms the epic's prophecies. Under the sunshine of Zeus, nothing has changed: man remains the same, an animal that is both great and desperate, radiant and humble at heart. Open this book and travel with the author Sylvain Tyson through 2,500 years of time, visit islands, join in battles, rush to the feast of gods and humans, and listen to Homer's eternal singing.