A story of successive escapes:- first, from the famine and cold and Cheka of poet-revolutionary years in Leningrad, to Siberia, and a forced return trip in company of a debauching White Russian Colonel, and later in a trainload of cadavers; next, an escape which involved the deaths of his friends; a third saw him into Germany, where he progressed from text -- driving to films, and where he married beautiful, adulterous Helen. Then came Hitler -- and again escape to France -- divorce and marriage to Natasha, childhood sweetheart Flight once more, into Spain, Portugal and America. No inhibitions for a fully dramatized life story which has its moments of exaggeration.