1813. Russian forces are liberating Europe from Napoleon’s armies, and in the capital of warring Russia, a lady-in-waiting, Orlova, is confronted by a painfully unpleasant fact: in the county where her young niece lives, girls are disappearing without a trace. The teacher’s daughter, the wealthy merchant’s wife, two townspeople, a serf—those who vanish have nothing in common besides their age. They are all fifteen years old. Tarot cards say the girls are dead, and now only Orlova herself can break the chain of terrible crimes and expose the killers.