Something had followed them from Russia.

It was thirteen years ago that Holly and her husband, Eric, went to Siberia to adopt the sweet, dark-haired child they wanted so desperately. How they laughed at the nurses of Pokrovka Orphanage #2, with their garlic and superstitions, and ignored their insistent warnings. After all, their fairy princess Tatiana?Baby Tatty?was perfect.

As the snow falls, enveloping the world in its white silence, Holly senses that something is not right, and has never been right in the years since they brought their daughter home. She and Tatiana are alone. Eric is stuck on the roads, and none of the other guests for Christmas dinner will be able to make it through the snow. With each passing hour, the blizzard rages and Tatiana's mood darkens, her behavior becoming increasingly disturbing . . . until, in every mother's worst nightmare, Holly finds she no longer recognizes her daughter.

Laura Kasischke teaches in the MFA program at the University of Michigan. A winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry, she has published eight collections of poetry and ten novels, three of which have been made into films, including The Life Before Her Eyes.