The Nest of the Turtledove

It is a story that resonates for a generation of Ukrainian women - working in a foreign land to build a better future for their family back home. However, where there may be financial rewards, the personal costs may be high. Ukrainian woman, Darynka is returning home after several years working in Italy. She left for Italy to find work to support her family in Bukovina in the central Eastern Carpathians of Ukraine. That work involves taking care of a wealthy Italian lawyer and his elderly mother. It is a lonely existence, she is totally dependent on her employers, the elderly woman treats her with disdain and the work is round the clock. The money offers her family an opportunity to escape the otherwise grinding poverty that would have marked their lives. It funds a new house, destined to be accommodation for visitors to this part of the Carpathian Mountains, her husband is building it, however he is doing it casually and slowly. However, while she was earning money abroad her family has slowly fallen apart. It all comes to a head upon her return. Her husband has developed a drinking problem, her daughter is in love with and pregnant to a young man who upon finding out he is to be a father goes cold on the relationship and refuses to do the 'honourable thing' and marry her. Her daughter's problems aside, Darynka has a secret of her own. She is also pregnant. The father is her Italian employer, the lawyer. What is she going to do now? How can she tell her husband? Darynka's problems are only going to get worse and they spiral to unimaginable tragedies. There is however, some light at the end of the tunnel...