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Alena is growing up in the newly built neighborhood of Leningrad in the 1970s. Though her life is circumscribed by the deprivation of Communist regime, it is also full: full of her family's love, her friends, her school, the richness of her vivid imagination, and the legacy of her grandfather, Felix Lembersky, an artist whose celebrated paintings captured the beauty of the world around them. Alena's life is upended when her grandmother emigrates to America, and her single mother, Galia, is unjustly incarcerated. Through Galia's ordeals -- a corrupt trial in a broken system, a stint in prison, and service in a labor camp -- she remains a devoted mother to Alena, her letters deepen their bond through their long and fraught separation. Told in the dual points of view of both Alena and Galia, Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpouris a clear-eyed look at the reality of life under Communist rule, giving us an insider's perspective on the roots of contemporary Russia.