It is a golden time for the aristocracy of St. Petersburg in the fall of 1914. The daughter of a lady-in-waiting, Katya Ivanova is safe behind palace walls. She takes her vacations on the imperial yacht and her tea with the Tsar's daughters. The royal family feels like her own.

But outside the palace, a devastating war sweeps through Europe, and deep unrest takes root in Russia. As the flame of revolution ignites in a country where the rich have always ruled, Katya's once-certain future dissolves.

National Book Award-winning author Gloria Whelan transports readers to a crumbling, war-torn Russia, where one young woman, growing up in the shadow of a revolution, must take her future into her own hands.