Simon Aylsham, son of an English lord and a surgeon, fled to Russia after a tragic accident that put an end to a promising career. He meets Galina Panova, a student at St. Petersburg University and they fall in love. Their lives become enmeshed in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and they live and work among the squalor and elegance of that time, with their love also threatened by the spoiled and beautiful Princess Nina.--from jacket