Richard "Nix" Miller is a young American living in Prague in the post-communist free for all that is Eastern Europe in the nineties. Surviving on his wits as a sophisticated pickpocket, he lives the good life due to his illicit takings and the modest allowance he receives in American dollars from his trust fund interest from home. On his thirtieth birthday he will become a millionaire so he leads a life of abandon, posing as a Hollywood screen writer in order to seduce the young ladies whose purses he empties.

"The gullibility of woman never ceases to astonish me, but that so many could fall for such romantic swill was a revelation. This was my first inkling that the former Iron Curtain countries might be a sexual playground for a Westerner of some style, and the local inhabitants seduced as effortlessly as easing a virgin leg into a pair of jeans."

"Nix" has a great time supplementing his allowance at the expense of the local girls but eventually attracts the interest of the local police.

I stood to leave, but couldn't help a last attempt to satisfy my curiosity regarding Bortnyk. "You're her uncle aren't you?" "I'm her fiance, you fool."

In any other story, the attention of the police would often serve to discourage further breaches of the law, however sophisticated, but our protagonist Nix is not dissuaded in the least. Worse still, he meets and falls in love with a strange, illusive woman who is not only his match in petty fraud but his superior.

As I rode the escalator toward the surface, a face as assured as a Botticelli angel appeared above. At first, I thought her an apparition and stared in a pose suitable for adoration, but as our escalators converged her features sharpened to a familiar and cruel sensuality. My goddess from Lavka!

This is only the beginning of his troubles. The "goddess" is a woman called Monika who already has a partner in "Sven" a man she claims to be her brother. The events he is drawn into because of his feelings for Monika form the basis of the rest of this compelling story. At times overwritten, nevertheless, it is an informative look into the life of a memorable group of characters in a memorable time. The title refers to many things, one being the ancestry Monika claims for herself, another the many gypsies we meet in Eastern Europe. The gypsy heart "Nix" falls for will bring him to a place far different to the one he imagined. From the seemingly harmless practice of playing with people's feelings, "Nix" finds himself playing for his life. A suspenseful and entertaining novel, full of dark humor.