Elizabeta Domescu's father is an important man. Working for the Romanian People's Republic and tasked with turning the small village of Poiana Brasov into a world class Olympic Ski resort fit for the exciting new decade of the 1960's. With his brigade of secret police and soldiers, he'll stop at nothing to make the government's cultural decree a reality.

So, if Ion Domescu knew that his daughter sought to help the nephew of an enemy of the state escape the nearby orphanage, heaven only knows how he would punish his daughter. But all talk of heaven is forbidden in a republic built on Soviet ideals.

Despite the risks, kindly Elizabeta, inspired by her strong willed but dutiful mother recruits the mischievous Dorin to help her reunite poor starving Constantin with his once proud family. This orphan who talks of space travel and the freedom it will bring humankind, is unlike any kid she or Dorin have ever met. 

But even he cannot say why the birds around the village sing such strange songs? Or who the strangers that wander the forests in search of crashed Sputniks are.

Only the Starling King knows the truth.