When her father dies without leaving a male heir, Miss Lucy Stanton isforced to leave her ancestral home and live with her grandfather, PrinceVirinsky. The late Sir Charles Stanton had written to his estrangedfather-in-law Prince Kuragin in Russia-entrusting him with the care of hisdaughter Lucy. The prospect of traveling to St. Petersburg-far away-wasfrightening and exciting. Though without a chaperone, Lucy did not fear forher virtue, one look at her escort, cousin Nikolai, revealed a nature asfrozen as the Russian steppes.