Many girls daydream that they are princesses adopted by commoners. In Miranda Popescu's case, her dream is literally true. Adopted from an agency in Bucharest by an American couple and raised from infancy in a Massachusetts college town, at the same time she stands at the fulcrum of a deadly political and diplomatic battle between conjurers in an alternate world, a place of magic and intrigue where "Roumania" is a great European power.Unaware of her past, hidden by her aunt in our comfortable world, she nevertheless has inklings of her own foreignness. This is the story of how she returns to her true home, accompanied by her best friends, Peter and Andromeda. The three of them find themselves changed during the journey, and in their own ways they begin to decipher a new truth about themselves.This is a magical tale, full of strangeness, terror, and wonder. The narrative is split between our world and Roumania, where powerful forces are working to protect Miranda or to capture her: her aunt, Aegypta Schenck; the Baroness Nicola Ceausesu in Bucharest; and the sinister alchemist who hold Miranda's true mother a prisoner in Germany. Read Less