SPINNING SILVER meets HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE in this beautiful debut Slavic folklore fantasy.

Marisha's life is not going as she expected. With the sleeping plague only a few months away, she's as desperate for money as she is to escape her aunt's torturous marriage prospects. Leaving all that she's known behind, Marisha accepts a job working with the notorious koldunya, Baba Zima in her house that glides on chicken feet through the snow.

But Baba Zima is renowned for being both clever and cruel. And most difficult of all is her current apprentice, Olena, who wants nothing to do with Marisha. Despite her fears and Olena's cold demeanour, Marisha finds herself drawn into the magical world of koldunry and delves further into Olena's research - a cure for the sleeping plague.

Accompanying Olena on an increasingly dangerous, seemingly impossible search for a cure, she finds hidden connections between the sleeping plague, her own family's history, and her bizarre, recurring dreams: dreams of a masked ball where the deep sleepers are trapped endlessly dancing - and a monstrous beaked man haunts her every step . . .