Set in contemporary Boston and in Moscow after the Second World War, Russian Winter tells the story of Nina Revskaya, who rose through the ranks of the Bolshoi Ballet to become one of the Soviet Union's greatest ballerinas, until her defection in 1952 on the heels of a terrible betrayal. Now confined to a wheelchair, Nina finds herself confronted by her haunting past in the form of a letter from Grigori Slonim, a professor of foreign languages who believes he may be Nina's illegitimate son: he has enclosed a photograph of an amber pendant as evidence to support his claim. Prompted by the letter, Nina decides to auction her famed jewellery collection, including the matching amber earrings and bracelet she now feels compelled to divest, thus setting into motion a tale that weaves together a contemporary academic mystery with the long-ago tale of a group of friends whose ability to love and to create are tragically compromised by the repressions of the Stalinist regime.