The sequel to Life and Darkness brings four friends back to where their life journey started -- the cold, dark city on the White Sea, Archangel. The Allies have intervened, landing troops in Archangel and looking to strangle the newborn Bolshevik government in its infancy. A war hero must decide the price he is willing to pay to stop the Soviets; a soldier tries to carry the city for the Red Army, a woman seeks to move beyond a sordid past and an emigre returns to find that the old city still exerts an influence upon him."