Nadia Silayev

Just as the nineteenth century was turning into the twentieth, Nadia, the sweet-spirited daughter of the laundress of a tiny central European hamlet finds adulthood a troubling time. Her birth as a male has never been a secret - all in the village know and have accepted her true identity, but she is far too feminine to attract most other females, while at the same time is just masculine enough to keep the young men away.

But surprising events, most connected to her quietly hidden heritage, bring her, through painful steps along desolate paths, to an ultimate joy unlooked for.