The hero of the novel, courier Mikhail Strogov, on behalf of the emperor sets off on a long journey from Moscow to Irkutsk through Siberia, captured by the „Tatars' uprising" in order to save the tsar's brother. An unusual trip to Irkutsk, created by the imagination of a French novelist, turned out to be so fascinating that in France there was a fashion for everything Russian, several generations were read this book.