[2] The novel is set in three districts near the border between the Russian and Ottoman Empires: Bayazit, Alashkert, and Vagharshapat.

The novel opens with four fast-paced chapters describing the Turkish siege of Bayazit, an historic episode from the last Russo-Turkish war.

[3] After a harrowing depiction of the battle, its outcome is left in suspense as chapter five suddenly shifts the focus to an earlier time to tell the story of a village in Alashkert and a romance caught in the treacherous sociopolitical crosscurrents of the war.

The succeeding twenty-nine chapters present a rich ethnographic account of country life in this particular region of Western Armenia, while depicting the ideological themes that dominated Armenian life at the time through a set of powerful, competing actors.

The Fool has been translated into English three times: by Jane Wingate in 1950;[4] by Donald Abcarian in 2000;[5] and by Kimberley McFarlane and Beyon Miloyan in 2020.