Edith Durham is a traveler-observer who, during her long-term visits starting in 1900 and repeated almost every year for fifteen years, traveled through the Balkans on horseback, city by city and village by village, to operate on behalf of international aid organizations during a stormy period when a final mobilization was initiated by Russia—with the consent of the major European powers—in the Ottoman Empire’s European territories, with Istanbul as its ultimate target. During these travels, Durham was in close contact not only with local administrators and ordinary people but also with diplomatic missions, military personnel, and foreign journalists in the region. Throughout these twenty years (1900-1920), when the Balkans were turned into a scene of fire, she was a person who, while deepening her observations by gathering information from them, was also able to exert, at least in part, an influence on them—especially on British diplomats and statesmen—regarding the policies and attitudes of the major powers toward the region.

The twenty years mentioned in this book, which cover the Balkan Dilemma—a recurring cycle throughout history—also encompass the final years of the Ottoman dilemma. In fact, this same dilemma is a candidate to become the dilemma of every Balkan country and the powers aiming to establish and deepen influence in the region from time to time, because the region has its own unique, unchangeable dynamics of fracture. Almost everyone has their eyes on everywhere else. Therefore, every society watches for its own star to shine; when its star shines, it is time for revenge; sought-after places change hands, and revenges are taken. This is largely true for the societies in the region as much as it is for the powers whose ambitions have extended into the region.

The "dilemma" that gives the book its name is the dilemma that manifested itself as a fire ignited in territories under Turkish rule (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Albania) by Serbian, Greek, Bulgarian, and Montenegrin princes and kings—local actors pursuing their own fortunes by leaning on these great powers and using the umbrella of Orthodoxy as much as racist sensibilities, saying "now is the opportunity"—as much as it is the efforts of the great powers to expand their spheres of influence and even annex territories in the region. The twenty years (1900-1920) of this dilemma constitute a period in which the Balkan fire contributed significantly to the acceleration of the liquidation of three major empires, including the Ottoman Empire.

The dilemma addressed by the book, which offers information and insights that could play a golden key role in understanding the background of what has happened and what could happen in the Balkans, has fracture lines of ethnic, religious, and political nature as region-specific potentials, and these lines still possess the quality of being easily mobilized. Therefore, the final phase of this dilemma has not yet been seen, and perhaps it never will be. In fact, the act of the Balkan Great Game that is being played, and can be played, is always, just as in the Middle East, the "penultimate" act. This book provides keys to understanding the general fundamental dynamics of this dilemma, as well as the period in which the Balkan Wars and the First World War took place, and therefore one of the main factors in the liquidation of the Ottoman Empire.