"Meridith and Nina Whitson were sisters, but it is hard to find two women who are more different. One is a homemaker who has always believed that there is no better destiny than to get married, raise children, and run a family apple nursery. The other dreamed of travels, became a photojournalist covering humanitarian disasters, and travels all over the world, avoiding conversations about the future and family. Father's heart attack brings the sisters together in their childhood home. They have never seen anything from their mother with Russian roots except for icy disapproval, and even now Anya does not try to get closer to her daughters, showing them the familiar detachment. In childhood, only one thing united them with their mother: the tale of the poor girl and the prince, which she told them at night. Realizing that he is dying, their father asks his daughters to listen to the tale until the very end. And so begins the journey of two women into their mother's past, into her life during the blockade of Leningrad."