Miles Lord is an African-American male attorney from South Carolina practicing in an Atlanta law firm.

The firm and Taylor Hayes, his boss, have financial interests in a favored descendant of the Romanov family, Stefan Baklanov. Due to Miles' fluency in Russian and scholarly knowledge, Taylor Hayes involves him in the Tsar Commission confirmation of Baklanov to restore the monarchy following the failure of the Russian government.

The book's prologue presents a dialog between Empress Alexandra and Rasputin describing the tragedy and future salvation of the Romanov dynasty. In the Russian Archives, Miles finds a letter from Alexandra about the prophecy referring to "the eagle and the raven". The discovery of documents and evidence that the two youngest Romanov children survived the massacre puts Miles in danger from a Russian conspiracy and his own boss.

A Russian woman, Akilina, whose name means "eagle", assists Miles. An elderly historian calls him "the raven" due to his ebony skin. His mission to find the truth threatens his life across Russia and at home in America.

This story of suspense has the pace of an action movie and the intrigue of a mystery shadowed by legend. Steve Berry, a new author, who was at the 2004 Book Festival, got the idea for the plot while touring the Kremlin researching his first book. The author skillfully blurs the line between historical realism and fiction.

Since 1991 when the remains of the family were exhumed questions have deepened about survivors. Historical and political developments of the 1990's enhance the plot substance. Twenty-first century questions add fuel to a rich heritage of fantasy and history. Since 1918 the family's deaths have fed the imaginations of Hollywood, biographers and storytellers. The reader will want to rediscover the family's biographies, characters and mysteries.