Tolstoy first heard of the Bahá'í teachings in 1894 at a time when the movement was hardly known at all in the West. This book traces the developments and fluctuations in Tolstoy's attitude as more information was made available to him. It is based on the author's correspondence and diaries, as well as the memoirs of those close to him and Bahá'ís who came into contact with him.

As a young man, Tolstoy became dissatisfied with the Church and eventually was excommunicated in 1901. He tirelessly sought out knowledge of religious movements and ideas which might contribute to his vision of "the establishment on earth of the Kingdom of God…"

"Very profound. I know of no other so profound" was the final conclusion about the Baha'i Faith of the great nineteenth-century writer Leo Tolstoy, a few months before his death in 1910.