An epic novel based on the failed Russian revolution attempted by noblemen in December 1825. The leaders were executed, the others exiled. Irina Dolvina follows her husband to Siberia, where she nurses him back to health. Enduring a primitive life through privation and hunger, Irina suffers a shocking betrayal, but her love survives and with it, the promise of a new beginning. Alla Crone was born and raised in the White Russian culture of Harbin, Manchuria. She lived there during the Japanese occupation and eventually moved to Shanghai, where she married an American physician. She now resides in California. Her articles have appeared in The Michigan Quarterly Review , The Christian Science Monitor , and other magazines. She is the author of four historical novels.