A house carved fine as a jewellery box, a painted garden, an angel in a palm tree. These are only some of the marvels of the Russian estate on which Nina Karsavina grows up, surrounded by her beautiful mother, her eccentric father, Katya her elder sister and the housekeeper Darya who teaches her the old Russian folk tales and traditions.But when her father gradually loses his mind after the death of her mother, Nina takes the difficult decision to leave her homeland and marry a complete stranger. She arrives in England on the brink of the First World War and must adjust to a society very different from her own...