This is the powerful memoir of Germaine de Staël, the most politically outspoken woman of the Napoleonic era. During the French Revolution, Mme. de Staël's salon was visited by the most brilliant politicians and intellectuals. Staël herself helped to introduce Napoleon to French society, yet like other liberals, she soon opposed the politic of Buonaparte. He, in turn, banished her from Paris in 1803. During the Russian campaign, Staël was forced to flee through Austria, Poland, Russian, and Britain. Her memoirs of these times are full of dangerous situations and penetrating insights into the Napoleonic society. As a well-read intellectual and a friend of Talleyrand, Schiller, and Goethe, she draws the reader with the depth of thought and the delicacy of literary style.

In 1802 Napoleon decided that there was no room in France for both himself and Madame de Stael, and he therefore sent into exile the woman whose intelligent liberal views were potentially dangerous for him. At first she was banished from Paris, and later, after the suppression of her book on Germany, from France. She began to write her memoirs, and was so carefully watched by Napoleon's agents that she even had to change the names of many people she mentioned, substituting English for French names in the manuscript. She stayed in Switzerland, travelled through Germany and Austria, and later through Poland into Russia. After she had stayed in Kiev, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Napoleon began his ill-fated expedition to Russia. She left the country in haste for Sweden, and it was there that much of this book was written.

Crown princess Aurelia is a survivor. She survived attempted assassination. She survived the king's rejection. She survived her mother's abandonment. And now, in exile, she must survive her kingdom-from hostile crowds to raw frontier to desert sands. But even as unknown assailants track Aurelia and expedition guide Robert, she knows what her greatest risk is: falling love...