Miryem's family is the only Jewish family in their small village in Lithvas, a fantasy version of Lithuania, in what feels like the mid 1700s. Miryem's father is a moneylender, but her family is very poor because her father is too much of a pushover to collect any of the debts or interest which is owed to them. Eventually Miryem decides to take matters into her own hands and begins collecting the debts herself. It turns out she's very good at it, because she's very stubborn and won't take no for an answer. She starts using the money to buy goods in Vysnia, the nearest city, to resell in the village. People begin whispering that she can “spin silver into gold”. In the forests surrounding the village a silvery fairy-road sometimes appears, and everyone knows to stay away from the pure white animals who live there. This is because they are owned by the Staryk, the winter people, who sometimes raid human towns for gold, though no one knows exactly why. When the rumors about Miryem start going around, one of the Staryk lords leaves a purse of silver on her doorstep and threatens to turn her into ice if she doesn't change it into gold for him. Wanda is a poor farmer girl who has two younger brothers and an abusive father. The father can't pay his debts, so Wanda starts working for Miryem's family to pay them off, and they develop a relationship. Irina is the daughter of the Duke of Vysnia; her father has ambitions to marry her off to the young tsar. She doesn't want to marry him, because she meet him when they were both children and he was already developing a sadistic streak. Her and Miryem meet when Miryem brings pieces of jewelry made of the Staryk silver to sell to the Duke- and so both of their fates are woven together and both end up tied to cruel, ancient powers whom they must outwit or be consumed by. This is the fifth Naomi Novik book I've read so far this year and I really enjoyed it. She has such a talent for taking a story farther than I would ever have expected. She writes with such exuberance; I get the feeling that writing is not a struggle for her, that stories just well up and spill over her hands.