In the book by Lithuanian-Canadian geographer and cultural historian Laimonas Briedis, the history of Lithuania's multicultural capital is recounted, starting from its "birth in Europe" in the 14th century to the present day. Vilnius is portrayed as a "geographical personality" and "historical hero" through the eyes of visiting "outsiders."

Relying on numerous sources in different languages, the author traces the cartographic, political, and cultural meanings attributed to the city throughout various periods of its history. The capital of a pagan principality through the eyes of Catholic missionaries; a baroque city in the mythical expanse of Sarmatia through the eyes of European cartographers; a Polish province through the eyes of the famous traveler and naturalist Georg Forster; the city during the War of 1812 through the eyes of Viennese physician Joseph Frank; Vilna as part of the Russian Empire through the eyes of Russian literary classics (Alexander Ostrovsky, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy).

An occupied city during World War I through the eyes of a German soldier-flâneur; the enigmatic Jewish Vilna through the eyes of German modernist writer Alfred Döblin—these are just some of the narratives included in the polyphonic tale of Vilnius.