Introduction. The article is devoted to an urgent problem – the study of the nature of female images in the work of the famous writer Maria Semenova. The author of the article shows the peculiarities of the implementation of the so-called “women's quest” using the example of the journey of the main character of the novel “Swan Road” ‒ a Slovenian girl who survived captivity, rescue, adaptation to a foreign culture and return home. The structural elements of the quest are connected with the mythological chronotope and are considered based on the methods of V. Y. Propp and J. Campbell's. The methodological basis of the research is the work of A. Ya. Gurevich, V. V. Karatovskaya, M. Eliade, Ts. Todorov. The novel “Swan Road” as a separate work has not been studied enough, it is more often used as an example of comparing and establishing patterns in the works of Maria Semenova or in Slavic fantasy as a whole. At the same time, the novel is of interest precisely from the point of view of the peculiarities of the hero's path in the works of the fantasy genre. The purpose of the article is to attempt to establish the quest nature of the novel. Conclusion. The author comes to the conclusion that the realization of the travel motive is carried out using both female and male models. The heroine's female quest thus initiates the beginning of male quests, where she acts either as a reward or a giver. Intercultural connections in the system of mythologies are also shown. The author of the article claims that Maria Semenova creates psychological portraits of heroes using one of the oppositions of her / someone else defining in the mythological systems of different ethnic groups. The uniqueness of the quest of the main character of the novel lies in accepting “other people's” ideas about the world while being faithful to “her own”.