A sweeping, tumultuous love story, a passionate, inevitable romance.Katherina. Golden-haired and innocent, she was the beautiful young bride of a much older man. Bewitched by her beauty, tantalized by her purity, every man who saw her secretly desired her. But Katherina had not awakened to the Russian passion deep in her blood. A passion that bloomed in full flower when she met a hansome, dark-eyed officer named Aleksandr. Theirs was a love that defied every rule. A romance that overcame every obstacle. A longing that drove them to the very ends of an Empire. A wild, surging desire that would endure as long as they both would live.