In the course of history, Prince Dmitri Kantemir - also the Prince of Moldavia, Prince of the Russian Empire, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and Imperial Chancellor to Peter the Great of Russia - lived in forced exile for 22 years. He became a great writer, statesman, scientist, and composer of Ottoman music. His children were prominent in Russian history: Antioch Kantemir became Russia's first satirist and Maria Kantemir was the last love of Peter the Great. Centuries later, American Ella Kantemir - a direct descendant of Prince Dmitri Kantemir, researches her ancestry and makes a startling discovery: a number of Kantemir Palaces were confiscated; a stolen heirloom is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and that her father was hunted by the KGB. Aside from missing castles, art, jewels and land, Ella discovered that she had a living sister - who shared her same name! And, that her own true identity was that of a Princess: ''Her Serene Highness Eleonora Borisovna Kantemir.'' What other secrets and surprises did the Kantemir dynasty harbor - and why do mystifying incidents still follow Princess Eleonora Borisovna into the twenty - first century? From the Ottoman Empire to the charms of Moldavia, to the raw romances of Czarist Russia, and the exotic country of Azerbaijan, IRON BLOOD chronicles 300 years of the Kantemir family's intriguing history.