The Huntress

After breaking into Ian’s office, Nina tells him that Tony apologizes. She urges Ian to come to Boston with them to find the Huntress.

Steeped in air battle against the Germans, Nina is the only girl in her aviation unit who does not have a traumatic reaction to the bombing. The Germans call the Soviet female air bomber unit the “night witches”, a label the women love (215). To remain in the regiment, Nina and Yelena must keep their lesbian relationship a secret. Still, Nina says they cannot think of societal expectations in such a climate. Rather, they must live for the here and now. 

In May 1950, Jordan is 21-years-old. She suppressed her dreams of becoming a photographer in favor of working in her father’s shop and marrying Garrett. While Jordan lost her virginity to Garrett, the thought of life “after the wedding was almost impossible, like the crest of a hill she couldn’t see beyond” (222).

Meanwhile, at the antiques’ shop, Anneliese—who by now has lost every trace of a German accent—hires a man named Mr. Kolb. Kolb speaks in a heavy German accent, and Daniel suspects him of swindling. Anneliese takes Jordan to shop for a wedding dress. At the boutique, a clerk tells them that there has been an “accident” involving Jordan’s father, who was out on a turkey hunt.

In May 1950, Ian, Nina, and Tony board a ship to America. As Tony romances a Milanese divorcée, Ian learns that there is more to his wife than he previously thought. From the way she looks up at the sky, he intuits that she was once a pilot. He finds this very attractive. After Nina and Ian have sex, she insists that their relationship is only physical. Nevertheless, Ian is even more drawn to her. He accuses her of thinking of someone else while kissing him. She denies it, and Ian feels she is more of a stranger to him than ever. 

After a hair-raising escape from the Nazis, Yelena loses weight and suffers hallucinations. After a shard of windscreen from the felled Rusalka pierces her arm, Nina is grounded for two weeks. When Yelena is paired with another navigator, Nina worries about whether it is safe for her to fly. At dawn, Nina walks to the airfield and asks after Yelena. No one replies, but she hears the sound of weeping.

Jordan attends Daniel’s funeral. He died when incompatible ammunition caused his shotgun to explode in his face. Although the authorities rule that his death was accidental, Jordan suspects foul play. Daniel was an experienced shooter; moreover, he refused to take Anneliese’s hand on his hospital bed. As Anneliese gives a convincing portrayal of grief, Jordan is furious. She escapes the wake and takes a taxi to the antiques shop. There, she meets Tony, who advertises himself as the clerk who responded to her father’s request for a new employee. Instantly charmed by Tony, Jordan hires him. 

Ian, Tony, and Nina rent an apartment in Boston. Tony announces that he has scored a job at McBride’s Antiques which, according to the Huntress’s mother, distributes fake documents to Nazi war criminals. Worried that Tony is attracted to Jordan, Nina and Ian remind him to keep an eye on her and the late owner’s wife, who now goes by Anna McBride and passes herself as a native Bostonian. Ian is optimistic about their chances of finding the Huntress.

While Ian and Nina continue their sexual relationship, he still does not know much about her past. His attempts to uncover more information are met with a shrug. When Ian finds Nina on the roof, he asks about her pilot days. She tells him that she was a night bomber who did 616 bombing runs during the war, far more than the twenty the male pilots in the British aviation troops did. She also tells him that she won the Order of the Red Star in 1943 and that she met “Comrade Stalin” (259).

In January 1943, Marina Raskova dies in an accident. Nina is one of three “Raskova’s Eaglets” summoned to Red Square to meet Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin at the funeral. She is given a proper women’s uniform, and the others dye her hair blonde with peroxide. When she meets Stalin, Nina can hear her father’s criticisms of him and is able to approach him boldly. She looks him directly in the eyes, rather than in the demure, blushing manner of her peers. She even thinks about drawing out her razor and killing him.

When Nina later tells Yelena that she thinks Stalin is “just another sack of Party horseshit in a suit” (268), Yelena, an ardent patriot, is offended. Their relations improve when Nina no longer mentions politics. However, she senses that Stalin remembered her insolence and her name. This proves correct when an investigation into her family comes within a year.

Still bereaved from her father’s death, Jordan is in the darkroom developing some final photographs of him when Anneliese joins her. When Jordan inquires about a scar on the back of Anneliese’s neck, Anneliese replies that she had a childhood accident. She confides in Jordan about her nightmares of a woman with a razor who chases her by the lake. She calls the nightmarish woman a “rusalka” (276). In a rush of affection and gratitude for Anneliese, Jordan tells her stepmother that she wants her to walk her down the aisle for the rescheduled wedding in springtime. Anneliese senses Jordan’s lack of desire to marry Garrett.

When Ian hears that Tony is unable to use his charm to get Kolb to talk, he decides that he and Nina must try a more aggressive approach.

When they find Kolb in his small apartment, Ian demands to see his identification documents. They learn that Kolb is an expert forger whose real name is Gerhardt Schlitterbahn. He worked for the Nazis, cataloging books that were stolen from Jewish families. Although Ian gets Kolb drunk and lifts him an inch off the floor, he realizes that Kolb will not confess the name of his accomplices; he is far more scared of the Huntress than he is of Ian. Ian threatens Kolb, telling him that if he leaves Boston, Ian will find him. 

By the summer of 1943, the Soviets are making gains against the Nazis. Nevertheless, Nina’s regiment loses an increasing number of pilots. When Nina is promoted to lead pilot, she must fly with a new partner other than Yelena. Her new navigator, the young Galina, accompanies her on a death-defying mission above water, which still proves to be Nina’s biggest fear. She is surprised when they do not drown.

More differences between Nina and Yelena arise, as Yelena has a vision of happy domesticity in Moscow after the war, while Nina wants to continue being a fighter pilot and killing Nazis.

At McBride’s Antiques, Tony flourishes as a new clerk. Meanwhile, Ruth is mesmerized by a violin. However, Anneliese will not let her take violin lessons because they will remind her too much of her mother. Moreover, Anneliese believes it would seem “a rather Jewish thing” (306) to be obsessed with music. She then tells Jordan that the shop has been left to Anneliese. She says that Jordan does not have to go through with her father’s plan for her to marry Garrett and inherit the shop. She can go to college or to New York. Jordan realizes that her stepmother knew her better than her father ever did.

At a diner opposite Kolb’s house, Ian and Nina watch to see if he leaves. Nina asks Ian about his “lake,” a metaphor for his wartime trauma. She guesses that his “lake” is a parachute (312). Ian tells her the story of watching G.I. Donald Luncey die after hitting every tree branch on his descent with a parachute. In a hallucinatory state, Ian confused Donald with his brother, Sebastian. Nina asserts that both she and Ian are hunters rather than soldiers. This means that when a war ends, they seek out the next battle. When he asks her to stay with him and Tony after they find the Huntress, Nina says she will never work in a team again and storms out of the diner.

Jordan tells Garrett about her plans to pursue a career as a photographer in New York and that she wants to postpone the wedding. After an argument, the couple realize that they do not love each other and break their engagement.

In July 1944 on the Polish front, Nina’s father is denounced for anti-Stalinist rhetoric. With her father on the run as an Enemy of the State, Soviet authorities decide to arrest all the family members connected with him. Facing arrest, Nina asks to fly a final run on the Rusalka alone. She begs Yelena to come with her and escape to the West, past the point where they could be arrested. Yelena, however, who loves her country and has family in Moscow, hesitates to join Nina. She tells Nina, “I can’t give up my homeland and my oath for love” (340). Heartbroken, Nina prepares to make her final flight alone.

Tony discovers that Kolb has a tattoo gun stashed in the shop, perhaps as a means of getting rid of the blood-type tattoo that would identify him as a Nazi. Tony presents Ian with lists of clients from the antique shop, amongst which might be the pseudonyms of Nazi criminals, including the Huntress. However, the counter-evidence of Frau Vogt’s account states that her daughter, the Huntress, left before the Displaced Person’s Act of 1945.

In his apartment, Ian takes out his violin and attempts to concentrate. Suddenly, Ruth emerges and asks what Ian is playing. Ruth reminds Ian of his brother Sebastian, due to the combination of her smart attire and an aura of having “already been failed in her rather short life” (346).

Jordan notices that Ruth’s encounter with Ian and his violin has made her outgoing. She agrees to let Ian give Ruth a few lessons, as long as she does not tell Anneliese.

Tony convinces Jordan to agree to a date. When she comes home “in the clouds” (353) and tells Anneliese she has a suitor, her stepmother is happy for her. Anneliese mentions that an Englishman has been asking Kolb questions. She also asks Jordan to watch Ruth while she is away for two weeks in New York and Concord attending antique fairs. Jordan assents and cannot help but feel pleased at the freedom she is afforded her since her father’s death.

Ian confesses to Tony that Ruth reminds him of Sebastian. Tony then confronts Ian about the fact that he is falling in love with Nina. He worries that Ian will be heartbroken if Nina takes to the skies after their divorce. 

Nina’s fellow pilots learn that she will be flying away and are sorrowful. She lands the Rusalka far to the west and says a tearful goodbye to her beloved plane, which she burns. She hallucinates that she sees her father. As she tramps her way through the forest, she meets Sebastian.