The three novellas of A Colossal Mess are set over a quarter-century in the development of modern-day Azerbaijan. In Yemen, an Azeri professor from the USSR takes an innocent stroll while on an international business trip and returns to find himself a suspected Soviet defector. In Stone Dreams, an actor explores the limits of one man's ability to live a moral life amid conditions of warfare, ethnic cleansing, political corruption, and petty professional intrigue. A Colossal Mess tells the story of a highly-placed employee who attends "Rais," the cunning and corrupt leader of the Azeri republic.