Linda Gorelova

Shots ring out in the infamous Ipatiev House basement. One by one the Romanovs fall, except for two of them. Aleksei is spirited off to Naukan, Russia by a half Yupik, half Appalachian shaman. Mariia’s Bolshevik beau delivers two nonfatal shots and rushes her to a convent, where the good nuns nurse her wounds. The lovers run away to Finland in a stolen Romani caravan. Later abandoned, the unfortunate girl resorts to prostitution to keep herself alive. Convinced that he’s not the only one to survive the brutal massacre, Aleksei is determined to reunite his family. He and Richard brave the Bering Sea, traverse the United States, and cross the Atlantic Ocean, but the broken sister he finds bears little resemblance to the one he knew.