A sweeping historical epic spanning three decades-from the chaos of the Russian Revolution to the ashes of post-war Europe.
In the frozen autumn of 1917, as Petrograd burns and the old world crumbles, nine-year-old Prince Vladimir Obolensky overhears a fragment of conversation that will change his life forever. Russia's gold reserves, her cultural treasures, her very soul-stolen by foreign powers who financed the revolution for their own profit-are being smuggled out of the country under the cover of chaos.
But Vladimir is not an ordinary child. He is the son of a brilliant physicist, a boy with a mind sharper than the cold steel of the weapons he loves to disassemble. And in his young heart, a terrible vow is born: to reclaim what was stolen. To restore Russia's honour. To hunt down the traitors and profiteers who have sold his homeland for gold.
Alongside his three remarkable sisters-Anna, a gifted physician with ice in her veins and fire in her soul; Olga, a horse whisperer whose silent strength conceals bottomless grief; and Katya, a young scientist whose passion for the secrets of the universe will unlock doors no one else can open-Vladimir embarks on a journey across war-torn Europe.
From the bloody snow of Archangel to the dark waters of the Baltic, from the glittering courts of Stockholm to the catacombs of Paris, from the murky underworld of Berlin to the eternal stones of Rome-the Obolenskys will face assassins, spies, and the shadowy machinations of the most dangerous man in the world: Sidney Reilly, the legendary "King of Spies."
