Marguerite Laurent, a Parisian needlewoman, is summoned to the Imperial Court of Empress Elizabeth to work as the Empress' personal embroiderer. She travels as part of a retinue of talented foreigners, several of whom worked in the same atelier as Marguerite. Each of the women has her own reasons for wishing to flee France, and they embark upon their adventure in a spirit of excitement mixed with trepidation, for the Empress' reputation is fearsome. Their journey is long, uncomfortable, and dangerous, but Marguerite makes friendships that will sustain her during the difficult months when she first arrives in Russia - most particularly with a handsome Englishman, Tom Harwell, a landscape gardener whose task is to create beautiful gardens for the Empress, and with an art dealer, Simon de Villiers...