Katherine Arden’s The Girl in the Tower (2017) is the second novel in the Winternight Trilogy, a historical fantasy series set in medieval Russia that blends folklore with history. The series, which begins with The Bear and the Nightingale (2017) and concludes with The Winter of the Witch (2019), was a New York Times bestseller and a Hugo Award finalist for Best Series. Arden’s extensive background in Russian language and literature, including time spent studying in Moscow, informs the richly detailed world of the trilogy. The novel follows the protagonist, Vasya Petrovna, as she flees her village after being condemned as a witch. To forge her own path in a world that offers women only marriage or the convent, she disguises herself as a boy and becomes entangled in the court politics of 14th-century Moscow, where she must confront the cultural tension between encroaching Orthodox Christianity and the older, pagan traditions of Rus’. This conflict is central to the novel’s main themes, which include The Defiance of Gender Roles in a Patriarchal Society, The Fading of the Old World in the Face of New Faith, and Identity as Performance and a Tool for Power. 

This guide refers to the 2018 Del Rey Trade Paperback Edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of gender discrimination, graphic violence, child abuse, child death, illness, death, physical abuse, and sexual harassment.

Plot Summary

The Girl in the Tower begins where the previous novel in the series, The Bear and the Nightingale, ends. At the end of that first novel, Vasilisa “Vasya” Petrovna’s father, Pyotr, has sacrificed his life to Medved (also known as the Bear, the god of chaos) to save her, and her stepmother, Anna, has been killed as well. The residents of her village, Lesnaya Zemlya, have turned on her with the help of charismatic priest, Konstantin Nikonovich, and believe her to be a witch. Vasya escapes the village on her horse, Solovey, determined not to be constrained by society’s ideas of what she should do or be.

As this novel begins, Vasya rides her bay stallion, Solovey, through a forest at night until she reaches a magical house in a fir grove. The frost-demon Morozko, in the form of a man, invites her inside from the cold.

In Moscow, Vasya’s sister, Olga Vladimirova, the Princess of Serpukhov, anxiously awaits her brother, Aleksandr “Sasha” Petrovich, during a winter storm. In her terem (tower) with other noblewomen, including the Grand Princess of Muscovy, Eudokhia Dmitreeva, a woman named Darinka tells a frightening story about a ghost. When she finishes, her daughter, Marya, screams, claiming to see the ghost Darinka described. 

The next morning, Sasha, who is a monk, arrives with a gravely ill priest named Konstantin Nikonovich. Sasha tells Olga that Tatar bandits are burning villages and stealing girls, and he plans to hunt them. He then meets with his cousin, Dmitrii Ivanovich, the Grand Prince of Moscow, advising him about the bandits. 

Konstantin awakens and tells Olga he has come from her home of Lesnaya Zemlya. He reports that her father, Pyotr, and stepmother, Anna, are dead, killed by a bear that Vasya allegedly provoked. He claims Vasya, whom he calls a witch, then fled and is presumed dead. Soon after, a red-haired boyar (nobleman), Kasyan Lutovich, arrives with a similar report about bandits attacking his lands. Intrigued, Dmitrii decides to ride out with Sasha and Kasyan.

The party finds several burnt villages and hears of girls being taken, confirming the reports. Kasyan departs to gather more men, promising to meet them at the Trinity Lavra monastery, Sasha’s home. When Sasha and Dmitrii arrive at the Lavra, they find it filled with refugees fleeing the bandits. A rider on a bay stallion appears at the monastery gate with three rescued girls, warning that the bandits are in pursuit. Sasha is stunned to recognize the rider as his sister, Vasya, disguised as a boy.

After Vasya fled Lesnaya Zemlya, she sought refuge with Morozko, and he gave her supplies for her travels, including a dagger that he fashioned from ice. He made her promise to always wear her sapphire necklace, revealing that it is a talisman he created to bind her strength to his own. Disguised as a boy, Vasya journeyed south and reached the town of Chudovo, where she briefly encountered Kasyan. Later, she was attacked by two men in a bathhouse, and the bannik (bathhouse spirit) helped her fight them off. She escaped on her horse, Solovey, aided by a sudden, unnatural snowstorm.

Vasya then fell gravely ill. Morozko found her near death and used the power of the sapphire necklace to heal her. When she recovered, she discovered another burnt village. The survivors told her bandits took three girls, and Vasya resolved to rescue them. The village’s domovoi (house spirit) gave her a magical glowing coal to track the raiders. She found the bandits’ camp and rescued the three girls. The midnight-demon, Polunochnitsa, appeared and directed Vasya toward the Trinity Lavra.

At the Lavra, Vasya maintains her disguise, calling herself Vasilii Petrovich and claiming to be Sasha’s younger brother. Impressed by Vasya’s bravery, Dmitrii insists she guide them back to the bandits’ camp. Kasyan arrives with his men, and they defeat the raiders. 

Vasya, Dmitrii, Sasha, and Kasyan return to Moscow, where Olga agrees to help Vasya maintain her disguise. Sasha confronts Konstantin and grows suspicious of his story about their father’s death. As Vasilii, Vasya attends a feast with Dmitrii, where she recognizes the new Tatar ambassador, Chelubey, as the bandit leader. The next day, Vasya meets Olga’s daughter, Marya, who reveals that, like Vasya, she can see the spirits that very few can see. 

The following day, Vasya is riding with Kasyan through Moscow when Chelubey confronts them. Vasya wagers that she can calm a spirited filly he has just bought. She wins and names the horse Zima. That night, Kasyan challenges Vasya to a horse race. Morozko appears, visible only to Vasya, and warns her of a “shadow over Moscow.” They ride out of the city together, and he kisses her but remains cryptic about his feelings and the danger.

The next day, Kasyan arrives for the race on a magnificent, glowing golden mare named Zolotaya. During the race, he reveals that he knows Vasya is a girl. Just as Vasya is about to win, Kasyan rips off her hood, exposing her long hair. Kasyan seizes her and publicly humiliates her by ripping her shirt open. A furious and betrayed Dmitrii orders Sasha arrested for his part in the deception and has Vasya imprisoned in Olga’s tower. The crowd denounces her as a witch. Kasyan visits Konstantin and enlists him in a plot. 

Morozko appears and tells Vasya that Kasyan is actually the sorcerer Kaschei the Deathless. Kasyan later visits the imprisoned Vasya and offers to marry her, saving her and her family from Dmitrii’s wrath. To protect her family, Vasya agrees, but when he tries to place a magical necklace on her, her sapphire talisman repels it. 

Soon after, Olga, who is pregnant, goes into labor. Morozko appears in his role as the death-god, declaring that either Olga or her child must die. Vasya intervenes, saving Olga’s life, but the baby is stillborn. Konstantin denounces Vasya as a witch, and she escapes. 

In the dooryard, she confronts Morozko, who reveals the sapphire’s true purpose. Feeling used, she breaks the necklace, severing their bond. Meanwhile, Kasyan manipulates Konstantin into kidnapping Marya for her magical sight. Vasya rushes to the monastery for Sasha, and they race to Dmitrii’s palace, which is under attack by Kasyan and Chelubey’s forces. Vasya frees the horses, including Kasyan’s mare, who transforms into a Zhar Ptitsa (firebird) and sets the city ablaze. 

Dmitrii forgives Sasha, and they rally the defenders. Vasya enters the tower to rescue Marya. There, she confronts Kasyan, and the ghost of her grandmother, Tamara, appears. Vasya realizes that Kasyan’s immortality is tied to the ghost’s life force, as they were once in love. Vasya destroys the jewel containing their shared life, killing Kasyan. 

Vasya escapes the tower with Marya to find Moscow burning. Polunochnitsa appears and tells her that Morozko’s power is broken, and he can now only appear to the dying. Vasya runs into the fire to summon Morozko. In the space between life and death, she confronts him and uses her love to pull him back into the physical world. 

She convinces him to save the city, and he summons a snowstorm that extinguishes the flames. As dawn breaks, Morozko’s power diminishes, and he fades away. Vasya returns to Olga’s palace. She, Sasha, and Olga reconcile, and Vasya tells them the full truth about her powers and Morozko. Olga accepts the truth, and the three siblings unite with a new purpose: to protect Marya, who shares Vasya’s sight.