Palace Square, St Petersburg, 1879. A shot rings out. As Cossacks tackle the assassin to the ground, no one notices a beautiful young woman slip away.

Russia is alive with revolution and Tsar Alexander ll's secret police will stop at nothing to unmask the conspirators. For Dr Frederick Hadfield, favourite of the Anglo-Russian gentry, these are dangerous times. Drawn into a desperate undercover game of plot and counterplot, he risks all in a perilous double life.