Born in 1926, Svetlana Alliluyeva spent her youth inside the Kremlin as her father’s power soared. Eighty-five years later, she died alone and penniless in rural Wisconsin. Revealed here for the first time, the many lives of Josef Stalin’s daughter form a riveting portrait of a woman who fled halfway around the world to escape her birthright.

Family tree -- Preface: Stalin's daughter -- The defection -- Part I: The Kremlin years. That place of sunshine ; A motherless child ; The hostess and the peasant ; The terror ; The circle of secrets and lies ; Love story ; A Jewish wedding ; The anti-cosmopolitan campaign ; Everything silent, as before a storm ; The death of the Vozhd -- Part II: The Soviet reality. The ghosts return ; The Generalissimo's daughter ; Post-thaw ; The gentle Brahmin ; On the banks of the Ganges -- Part III: Flight to America. Italian comic opera ; Diplomatic fury ; Attorneys at work ; The arrival ; A mysterious figure ; Letters to a friend ; "Scoundrely" behavior ; Only one year ; The Taliesin fiasco ; The Montenegran's courtier ; Stalin's Daughter cutting the grass ; A KGB stool-pigeon ; Lana Peters, American citizen ; The modern jungle of freedom -- Part IV: Learning to live in the West. Chaucer Road ; Back in the USSR ; Tbilisi interlude ; The American reality ; Never wear a tight skirt if you intend to commit suicide ; My dear, they haven't changed a bit ; Final return.