The Cossacks is an early novel drawn partly from Tolstoy's own time in the Caucasus. Olenin, a restless young nobleman from Moscow, travels south to join the army and settles in a Cossack village. There he meets villagers whose lives seem freer and more natural than his own, and he becomes drawn to a young woman, Maryanka. The book contrasts city refinement with a simpler, harsher way of life and asks what real happiness might be. It is a fresh, descriptive work that already shows Tolstoy's gift for character and landscape.