The dazzling, feisty Cossack Marysia was out riding her horse across the steppe when Gulkhan, the Sultan’s son, recognized her as the woman that the court astrologer had said he was destined to love. Unable to withstand his feelings, Gulkhan orders the beautiful lady to be brought to his harem. Marysia’s future seems decided – a life lived on silk pillows and in the aromatic pools of Turkish baths. Or that is what would have happened were it not for the Janissary Altan, Gulkhan’s loyal bodyguard… Hundreds of people – from the simple Cossack Fyodor to the Turkish Sultan Selim – become embroiled in the melee caused by the Janissary Altan’s and the noble Gulkhan’s passion for Marysia.