At the turn of the millennium, the author set out on an epic journey across the new, 'borderless' Europe. In the former Soviet satellite states of Poland and East Germany, he finds that the Russians have all gone home, but the legacy of occupation remains indelibly stamped on the minds of the people. In the Balkans, he encounters a landscape of ruins as the traumatised population struggle to deal with the grim realities of ethnic conflict. Finally, in an obscure corner of the ex-USSR, he joins a band of youthful activists as they attempt to topple a paranoid and authoritarian regime.