Autumn Marathon tells of a gentle-souled English translator in Leningrad who can't keep his private affairs apart from his duties - that is, he has a mistress on the side and a wife he loves. In addition, his Danish neighbour likes to go jogging each morning and punctually rings his doorbell at dawn during this autumn season. Then there are his English-language students at the Institute where he teaches, a publisher hounding him for a translation into Russian of a new book, and a dumpy colleague needing his help to do her English-Russian translations. The hours in the day are just too short for everything, particularly for his demanding mistress who's already taken over part of an attentive wife's duties.