Laura Asanton married her prince to escape the terror of Lady Ramkinson's finishing school. She was supposed to live happily ever after; instead she found herself isolated in a backwards principality in the Ural Mountains, surrounded by traditions and a language foreign to her.Snubbed by Aleksei's aging court she sought solace with the stable groom Olaf, who opened her eyes to the beauty of the principality, and the terrible plight of Dalnerechensk's miners. As simmering resentment teeters towards revolution, can Laura hold on to what she has grown to love, or will it all be swept away?