When a young graduate returns home he is accompanied, much to his father and uncles discomfort, by a strange friend who doesnt acknowledge any authorities, who doesnt accept a single principle on faith. Turgenevs masterpiece of generational conflict shocked Russian society when it was published in 1862 and continues today to seem as fresh and outspoken as it did to t When a young graduate returns home he is accompanied, much to his father and uncles discomfort, by a strange friend who doesnt acknowledge any authorities, who doesnt accept a single principle on faith. Turgenevs masterpiece of generational conflict shocked Russian society when it was published in 1862 and continues today to seem as fresh and outspoken as it did to those who first encountered its nihilistic hero.