Publisher's Synopsis
Siberia 1919. In the outer reaches of a country recently torn apart by civil war lives a small Christian sect and its enigmatic leader, Balashov. Stationed nearby is a regiment of Czech soldiers, desperate to get home but on the losing side in the recent conflict. Into this isolated community trudges Samarin, an escapee from Russia's northernmost gulag. Immediately apprehended, he is brought before the regiment's megalomaniac commander. But the stranger's arrival has also caught the attention of others, including Anna, a beautiful young war widow. And when the local shaman lies dead, suspicion and terror engulf the little town.
