A novel, known in English as Smoke, set largely in the German spa town of Baden-Baden in the 1860s among visiting Russians. Litvinov, a serious young man engaged to a respectable girl, unexpectedly meets Irina, a woman he once loved passionately. Around them swirl gossip, political quarrels and satirical portraits of Russian aristocrats and exiles. Turgenev uses the tangled love story to reflect on Russia's destiny and on how fleeting human plans and passions can be.