This painting draws from a Siberian tale of Angara, the daughter of Lake Baikal. Baikal had 335 sons but only one daughter, Angara, for whom he struggled to find a suitable match. Angara defied her father's plans to wed her to the wealthy but selfish Lake Irkut and instead fled with Yenisei, a humble and devoted lover, becoming the only river to flow out of Lake Baikal.