Annaveta Travotsky is a young girl poised on the brink of womanhood in 1913 Russia. She is the oldest child in a family of Russian peasants. Life is hard for the Travotsky family as it was for most peasant families. Her father arranges for her to marry a man whom she doesn’t love. When tragedy strikes, turning Annaveta’s world upside down.

Lizzie Clydell is a young woman struggling to come to terms with her own tragic past—the death of her parents. When her grandmother invites her to a meeting of the local genealogy group, she reluctantly agrees in order appease her grandmother. "It’s just a little family history. What could go wrong?"