Natasha Helvin examines the material of traditional Slavic culture associated with archaic ideas about death, the dead and their posthumous existence, the soul and the afterlife, funeral and memorial rituals, folklore sources, and everyday beliefs in rural Ukraine/ Russia and Haiti.
The author points out the connection/similarity between Haitian Vodou and the Slavic tradition honoring once ancestors as a foundation, the existence of supernatural forces, life after death, funeral traditions, and much more.
The author proposes the concept of a ceremony as a non-verbal message with its own laws of construction and a distinctive kind of poetics.
In addition to describing the pagan mythological image of the Slavic world, part of the book is devoted to the Christian Orthodox tradition of church commemoration of the dead.
This book also finds information about folk customs, both from Slavic and Haitian cultures. Some general hypotheses are put forward about the typological nature of Slavic paganism and its relation to the Christian tradition (the so-called "dual faith").

The author talks about how the actions of distant ancestors continue to influence our destiny. Natasha Helvin conveys that the ability to learn from mistakes and improve is the basis of both biological and spiritual evolution.