When the young Russian psychiatrist Olga Kharitidi set out on an impetuous journey into the snowbound Altei Mountains of Siberia, she never dreamed that her experience there would shatter and rebuild her view of reality. Among the wintry villages and pine forests of Siberia, guided by mysterious native sages, Kharitidi unearthed the wellspring of the world's mystical traditions, discovered deep secrets of healing and magic, and encountered revolutionary teachings about the true nature of the human soul.