When Nina Revskaya, former star of the Bolshoi Ballet, decides to auction her remarkable jewelry, she hopes to draw a curtain on her past. Instead, she is overwhelmed by memories of glorious and heartbreaking events that changed her life's course half a century before. In Russia, she discovered the theater, fell in love with a famed poet, and became—with her closest friends—a victim of Stalinist aggression. A terrible discovery led to a deadly act of betrayal—and to Nina's escape to Boston. Now, an associate at the Boston auction house and a Russian professor are unraveling a mystery surrounding a love letter, a poem, and a necklace of unknown provenance, stirring up revelations that will have life-altering consequences for all.