When an ancient gold bear is found entombed in a dilapidated St. Petersburg bathhouse owned by her uncle, Rosa Kovalenka knows in her heart that this is no random twist of fate. Her former lover, researcher Daniel St. Clair, reluctantly agrees to go to the university in Arkhangelsk to identify the relic. Along the way he is mysteriously set adrift. Maps are suddenly useless. Automobiles break down and cell phones inexplicably stop working. Lost and exhausted, Daniel stumbles even deeper into the secrets and terrors of the Russian landscape. Rosa fears the worst when Daniel goes missing and, full of shame and sudden longing, resolves to find him. But to do so means confronting her past and secrets that she has fought to suppress. In the unknowable, impenetrable Russian forest, Rosa meets an enigmatic wanderer who is full of tales and riddles of times past. He knows tales of a very old bear and the fate of lovers old and new. And he might hold the key to Rosa and Daniel's future--or the destruction of their world.