Ancient Rus… Across the boundless expanses of the Volga lands, many tribes wander, dealing in raids and slave trade. During another raid on a peaceful Slavic settlement, the beautiful Belava and her stepmother, almost her peer in age, Nedviga are captured by the Pechenegs, and then sold on to other hands—and then to still other ones. Belava and Nedviga lose each other… Life in slavery is bitter and hard. Long ago the unfortunate beauty would have settled accounts with life—if not for a feeling that warmed her heart: back there, in her native land, her beloved remained. With him—young merchant named Veselin—Belava was waiting to meet; she strove toward him from faraway places where she ended up not by her own will.
But does the Kyiv merchant remember her? Is he waiting—or did he marry someone else long ago?