Set in 1919 in Siberia, The People’s Act of Love by James Meek takes place at the end of a war. Yazyk is host to a gorup of Czech soldiers who only want to go home and a Christian sect that exercises castration as a way to become closer to God. Balashov, the leader of the Christian sect, has secrets of his own involving a widow, Anna Petrovna, who lives among these groups with her young son. Mutz, one of the Czech soliders who longs for home and yearns to get his wish, is in love with her.

Wandering through the cold and running, he says, from a cannibal called The Mohican, Samarin finds himself in Yazyk. With him he brings death; the local shaman’s body is found shortly after his arrival. He is suspected and locked up to await his trial. It is during his defense that the reader learns of his daring escape from The White Garden, a prison camp, with The Mohican under the understanding that The Mohican merely took Samarin along for sustenance.