The Light of the Righteous. Book 2. The Lady

Lieutenant Nikolai Ozariev returns to Russia after a foreign campaign not alone. In France, he becomes madly in love with the beautiful Sophie de Champlit — intelligent, independent, and sharp in her judgments, and moreover a republican, and wins her hand and heart.
Sophie does not understand many things about Russian life and finds it monstrous that slavery still exists here. She tries to alleviate the lives of the serfs, much to her father-in-law's displeasure. But even he, a despotic and grumbling old man, is influenced by Sophie's charm, her beauty, and her willingness to help anyone in need of her assistance.
But no one can help her with her own grief — she and Nikolai have lost their firstborn, and it is not easy to survive this.
Meanwhile, Russia is restless — the officers who have returned from the foreign campaign have absorbed the ideals of freedom, equality, and brotherhood and do not want to forget them. The year 1825 is approaching.