Inna Makarova is a St Petersburg secretary with a degree in literature, who has had the same nightmare since she was two years old: "I was a man in a military uniform. I was running through the woods hiding myself from some enemies. No success: the enemies captured and killed me by cutting my throat with a knife." She became convinced her former name was Serdov, a Bulgarian resistance fighter who had been killed by Nazis in 1943. Her quest took her to Bulgaria... where she met her husband, Vadim.

At this point, her nightmares ceased, as if the memories of a past life had been to draw her to the time and place where she would find her soul-mate. But then, she got a new dream, where she saw herself as the beautiful daughter of a noble family at the brink of the Russian Revolution in 1917. In this dream, Inna she knew she must must flee her homeland, never to see her friends again. She saw herself gazing at the man she secretly loves, who wears a diamond brooch in the shape of a musical G clef. When Inna told her husband Vadim of this dream, he shook with disbelief: "That brooch is an heirloom!" he said. "My mother keeps it safe now but once it belonged to my great-grandfather!"