This novel is a fictionalized account of the mysterious life and death of the notorious Rasputin, as told by his daughter, Maria. Rasputin was a Russian mystic and adviser to the Romanovs, the Russian imperial family. In this story, Maria is interrogated by the provisional government on the details of her father's death, Maria vividly recounts a politically tumultuous Russia, where her father's powerful influence over the throne is unsettling to all levels of society and the threats to his life are no secret. With vast conspiracies mounting against her father, Maria must struggle with the discovery of Rasputin's true nature -- his unbridled carnal appetites, mysterious relationship with the empress, and rumors of involvement in secret religious cults -- to save her father from his murderers. Swept away in a plot much larger than the death of one man, Maria finds herself on the cusp of the Russian Revolution itself.