Bielka ("Squirrel"), a beautiful young woman in a wheelchair, and her taciturn companion Shchenok ("Puppy") must keep their true identities secret as they navigate the fraught political climate and harsh landscape of the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Intrigue abounds in this richly historical and erotic political drama that weaves historical figures including the Romanovs and Rasputin into Hiroaki Samura's brilliant fiction.