A love story of modern Poland, by the author of Quo Vadis. The scene is laid at Kieff, and university life there is described.

In Vain the first literary work of Sienkiewicz, was written before he had passed the eighteenth year of his life and while he was studying at Warsaw. This volume contains pictures of student life drawn by a student who saw the life which he describes in this work. His student was a person of exceptional power and exceptional qualities, hence the value of that which he gives us.