This is the story of a multi-faceted struggle, a young woman’s campaign against the strictures imposed upon her by her nation, culture, village and faith, each an epitome of male domination. Is she devout, a searcher, standing her ground, a smaller cyclone, careening within the greater, twisting in opposition to its Coriolis motion, lost in the wrong hemisphere? What befalls the characters happened to real people. The historical accuracy is backed by 400+ footnotes. A recent reader called the book, “Shakespearean,” another, “profound.“ Rivka Ganuke barely survived her birth. She is delivered into a world of want, poverty, and danger, a misogynistic world forever depriving women of equality. She survives attack, a pogrom. Traveling to her uncle, she becomes aware of his repressed passions and secret double life. Won over to the “cause,” she falls in love with its leader. Steeped in spy-craft, she enters service in the royal palace where she meets Anastasia and is pursued by Rasputin. She is forced to witness the royals’ horrific assassination. Previously reviewed by several editors, the comments have been laudatory. “It’s a page turner (Schocken); the reader is a “witness to history as we are taken along on her journey.” (developmental editor).