1908. The Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens—a model of discipline and propriety: exemplary students, strict instructors, needlework, and English tea. But the familiar way of life is shattered in a single moment when a junior-class student vanishes without a trace.
Varvara Vorontsova, the elder friend of the missing girl, doesn’t believe in accident, childish pranks, or a runaway. She is convinced that the disappearance is only one link in a far more tangled and dangerous intrigue, in which the Smolny maiden has already become an important figure—capable of changing the course of events.
Can Varya unravel this web of secrets without getting herself killed and without losing the people she cares about?