Meredith and Nina Whitson are sisters, but it’s hard to find two women more dissimilar. One is a homebody, always believing there was no better destiny than to marry, raise children, and manage the family apple orchard. The other dreamed of travel, became a photojournalist covering humanitarian disasters, and globe-trots, avoiding discussions about the future and family. Their father's illness brings the sisters together in their childhood home. From their mother, who has Russian roots, they never experienced anything but icy disapproval, and even now, Anya makes no attempt to connect with her daughters, displaying her familiar detachment. As children, only one thing united them with their mother: the fairy tale about a poor girl and a prince, which she told them at bedtime. Realizing he is dying, their father asks his daughters to listen to the fairy tale—to the very end. Thus begins the two women's journey into their mother's past, into her life in besieged Leningrad, into a terrifying and beautiful icy world.
