This is the story of two families at the center of the Soviet Union's soul-wrecking lies One family includes Zoya Zarubina, who translated the stolen American atomic bomb secrets. Her stepfather, Leonid Eitingon, functioned near the apex of Soviet power and directed Trotsky's murder in Mexico. A fictional former White Army colonel heads the other family, who stand for the experience of millions with the Gulag, starvation, exile, blackmail, and murder.