Dr. Laura Pavlov, an American forensic archaeologist, is a member of an international team digging on the outskirts of the present-day Russian city of Ekaterinburg, where the Romanov royal family was executed in July 1918. When Pavlov discovers two bodies perfectly preserved in permafrost in a disused mine shaft, they offer dramatic new clues to the disappearance of the Romanovs, and in particular their famous daughter, Princess Anastasia, whose murder has always been shrouded in doubt. What Pavlov discovers is about to change the accepted course of world history and hurl her back into the past—and into a maelstrom of deceit, secrets, and lies.